melodiesoflife | Event || Revelations

Entry tags:

Event || Revelations

Characters: All the Heroes of Light and their Moogles.
Where: Order's Sanctuary, The Interdimensional Rift and their Homeworlds.
When: August 03rd - August 30th

Summary: Following the battle against Palitutu, all the Heroes of Light were transported into the Interdimensional Rift. They were told by Palitutu they would have to find her to prove they can break the cycle-- But before they could reach their destination, a malevolent entity from the Rift stripped them from their immortality...

And now, they woke up in a decaying and dying world, most specifically in a place called Order's Sanctuary. From there they are ready to jump... Into their homeworlds! Feel free to use this post for the Mingle at Order's Sanctuary and should your homeworld be the stage for the Heroes of Lights' next adventures, feel free to make a thread for it and as many sub-thread as necessary! Please refer to the OOC Post for questions and plotting.

Warning: Whatever you come up with.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rialynn's father peered at Ramza for a long, long moment, scrutinizing every word for some hint of rakishness. But, finding none, he grunted in satisfaction. "Good lad," he said, and lumbered to the large black stove to fill it with more wood and keep the front room warm.

As for Rialynn herself, she carried out an armful of blankets and pillows from the linen closet to start making beds for Ramza and Duster. "Sorry. I know it's not the most comfortable arrangement, but it's warm at least. Tomorrow, we need to get you a sword," she nodded at Ramza, "and at least two horses. We can probably double up unless anyone's uncomfortable with that. If so, let me know. We'll just have to knock out more guards."

That experience was less terrifying than Duster imagined. Rialynn's father seemed nice, but he was thankful that the Heroes were left alone. Still, he walked away from the man by the stove, hoping to remain beneath notice.

"It's fine, I slept outside often back home. Duster reached out to help Rialynn with the bedhsheets. "What's with the soldiers? Are they...putting you in danger?

Tazmily was no safer with the Pigmasks patrolling the streets, no matter how helpful to the locals they were. They had to be bad news.

"Not...really." Her face grew red fairly fast. She could feel it, and she cursed her fair skin and red highlights in her hair that made her so prone to overheating. Her gaze flicked briefly and guiltily to Ramza. If he hadn't read her file, she might not have mentioned anything at all. But he knew all about it, so the others should probably know what they were dealing with too. At least she could look at the sheets instead of anyone else's face.

"So, quick summary. I met a guy when I was sixteen, he asked my father if he could marry me, I ran away from home. The guy is kind of a lord. I made some friends on the road, we got into trouble more than a few times and word got back to him, so now he probably thinks getting married is doing me and my father a big favor." She shook her head with a self-deprecating smile.

"It's a really, really stupid story."

K'pandolu nodded, putting her hands out to help carry or arrange whatever she could help with. "I don't mind doubling up," she said.

She listened intently to Rialynn's story, and hummed at the end of it. "It doesn't sound so silly to me," she said. "I'd say… an adventure, with some mistakes made." She tilted her head to the side, ears flicking. "So… that means you don't wish to marry him, am I right?"

Rialynn kept smiling, though her gaze was firmly fixed on the floor. She could explain it, she supposed, but there was still so much of it she was ashamed to admit. Running away just because it didn't 'feel' right, neglecting the small fortune her father could have had if she did agree, the influence and power the wife of a lord could wield for good...

It would just sound crazy, and overly defensive, if she told all of her reasons. So she just quietly shook her head. K'pandolu was very right. There was almost nothing she wanted less than that.

But she did reach over to lightly tug K'pandolu's hat back into place to hide those twitching ears before they gave her away.

"The arrangements are fine. We will be very comfortable about here." He takes an armful of blankets from Rialynn and sets them down to deal with later.

"You need not worry. If the young lord tries to harass you, he will find out how much trouble we can cause." Ramza does not have a sword, but if he did, he would have a hand placed on the hilt.

Duster nodded and held out a closed hand in solidarity. "If anyone tries to make a grab for you, do your best to fight them off. We'll take care of the rest."

He knew that self-defense class would be useful. Lord or not (he had no real admiration for the rich, anyway), Rialynn shouldn't be married against her will. It wouldn't be fair if her friends had a say on who'd they'd be with an she wasn't.

She was honestly touched by their understanding, and offers of valor. She'd...made some pretty good friends along the way, in spite of all the troubles she'd run into and caused. Rialynn was grateful, and she put her fist out over Duster's.

"Thanks," she exhaled in relief. "No need to fight on my behalf. We just need to find the portal. If it so happens that I do run into Lord Jaxon, I can probably just go along with it and sneak out the window or something. No one in this world has any sort of crazy ability, so as long as we're here? You guys are powerhouses. I'm not worried at all."

...Well, maybe a little worried, but she figured that was just her lingering anxiety and guilt over facing the decisions of her past and the consequences that came with them.

K'pandolu made a little 'mrrp' sound as the hat was put back in place, one hand up to adjust it. That… would probably have to stay on, wouldn't it? Just in case. Ah, well.

She nodded to support the others. "Well- I hope we won't need to do anything too drastic. But you can definitely count on us!"

"Thanks," Rialynn grinned, relieved. with the last of the beds set up, she pushed herself up to her feet and made her way to the kitchen. She felt a strange sense of surrealism from the sheer nostalgia of the way the house still smelled after her years of absence. It was so familiar, the pots hanging on the same pegs, the same old dish towel set next to the larder. She gathered up the food her father had laid out and carried it to the front room so they could eat and talk until they were too tired to do much more than laugh at one another's lame jokes.

Morning seemed to come too soon. It filtered through the cracks in the curtains and stabbed at the eyes of the sleepers to urge them awake. The smell of hot coffee was rich in the air, the elder Kollmann having brewed some on the little potbelly stove. Boiled eggs and fresh bread slathered with butter and berry jam awaited them for breakfast, and Rialynn ate as if she were starved. She'd missed all of these familiar things, and once they found the portal, there was no telling how long it would be until she had a chance to come home and enjoy them again.

She wondered if she would have ever come home at all, if not for her conversation with Ramza that night in the hospital. Most likely, she would have continued wandering the countryside seeking new stories to tell and helping Sabien and the others find their destinies. She wondered if her other self was doing that even now.

Rialynn's father emerged from his room, a cloth-wrapped bundle held in his arms. The floorboards creaked under his weight as he approached Ramza and extended the bundle. "Sword," he grunted.

Rialynn's eyebrows went up. "The blacksmith was okay with the gil?"

He nodded. "Said he could melt it down and use it for some of his projects. We could only get one horse, though."

She wiped the crumbs from her fingers, frowning thoughtfully. One wasn't enough for the four of them. Looking to the others, she decided to just ask straight out. "You guys are fine with knocking out a soldier or two and riding off with their horses, right?"

Duster never was good at waking up early. He used to train until the late night as a child, went onto becoming a nightclub musician, and saving two worlds did little to fix that. He groaned the light from the window shone directly on his eyes, then again as Ramza moved around the room.

Five more minutes.

He pulled the blankets over the eyes and hoped that the others would leave him alone.

Ramza, unlike his new roommate, was accustomed to rising with the sun, so he left Duster to his devices and went to break bread with the Kollmanns.

He accepted the sword from Rialynn's father with a bow of his head. "Thank you for procuring this. We will be safer from bandits and wild animals with proper steel by our sides."

He raised an eyebrow at Rialynn's suggestion, though. "We are not in such haste as to justify thievery, I think. We can use the horse to carry our supplies, and make better time on foot because of it."

A horse could be someone's livelihood, and besides, the power of the rift would let them cross when its purpose had been fulfilled. He wondered if there was any use in rushing.

K'pandolu was also used to waking at dawn, and companions who were less fond of it, leaving Duster to be the only one sleeping longer as she went to investigate breakfast.

She settled back, frowning slightly. Her tail was still under wraps, but it was inconvenient. "There is still something of a time limit," she said. "I do think it would be good to be able to move quickly… We might look less suspicious on foot, but it might be a problem if we needed to run." Twelve willing, they wouldn't need to, but still. She looked towards Rialynn, tilting her head slightly. "Should we be heading for the city?"

She considered Ramza's opinion, then relented. They'd probably run into less trouble right off the bat, but long-term, it was risky.

Rialynn nodded to K'pandolu. "I think so. If there were anything unusual around here, my father would have told us. If we head to the city, we might overhear some rumors, and it's about half a day's walk to the east. It's our best chance. When I left this world, I was miles and miles to the south. There's a lot going on down there, but if we're supposed to find the portal in that area, I'm guessing we would have appeared a lot closer to my last location."

It sparked a thought in her head, and she jogged her knee anxiously. She lowered her voice, knitting her brow as she reached for another piece of toast. "Does anyone else think it's strange that we were pulled into Crystallis, but no one on our worlds seems to have noticed we ever went missing?" She looked down at her plate, then sighed. "What if we're the doppelgangers, and our real selves never truly left?"

Duster was going to miss breakfast if he didn't rouse himself soon, it was almost gone.

Ultimately, Rialynn knows her world better than Ramza does, so he will trust her judgement on what they should do.

He ponders her question, though. "I used to think as you do...but we went to Ivalice. Time had not passed, and there was no other 'me' there. Now I know not what to believe."

And it is a worrying thought. Before, he did not truly believe that the worlds were connected as the Crystallians claimed, and that their actions on Crystallis could lead to the destruction of home worlds. But now...

He pushed his plate away, not feeling as hungry as he had moments before.

Rialynn looked at Ramza's plate, then at Ramza himself, as she was caught in mid-chew. She stared guiltily down at the table as she finished her toast, then spoke again.

"Sorry. I was just trying to figure out how all of this works. I didn't mean to upset you guys." It wasn't exactly good breakfast conversation, was it? And it was a negative way to start the day.

Brushing the crumbs from her fingers, Rialynn rose to her feet. "I'm going to help my father with the dishes, then I'll be ready to go. We might as well get an early start and hope the soldiers are too groggy to be paying much attention to the roads."

An early start was not to be had if Duster was left alone. He had missed the conversation and nearly all of breakfast. Despite the noises coming from the kitchen, this bum chose to remain in the same position, still covering his face with the blankets. He hated waking up this early in the mornings.

K'pandolu rose to her feet as well, and reached out to touch Rialynn's shoulder for a moment. "It's all right," she said. "It's not the most positive thought, but- this isn't the best position we've been put in. And- it's perhaps for the better if we confide in each other." Admittedly, she wasn't always the best at doing so herself, but she could try. "Besides- perhaps if there are two of us in the end, we might be able to cope with matters at home better," she added, trying for some levity. Certainly she imagined it would help in Eorzea.

She glanced back towards the room, and nodded. "I'll try and rouse Duster, then."

"There is no cause for apology. The truth will never be uncovered if we do not speak of it." No matter how worrying it was.

Ramza unfolded a plain white napkin and began to tuck the left-overs from breakfast into a little bundle. Duster would need to eat on the road if they wanted to make good time.

Rialynn nodded slowly, thoughtful. There was no denying the fact that Crystallis had changed all of them in some fashion. She'd grown in ways she never could have had she stayed here all of this time. She'd learned that Johnny, a half-demon, behaved just as humanly as anyone else she knew despite his infernal heritage. She'd been exposed to different cultures, music, and art that she'd likely never forget in her days to come.

If they did return to their worlds, would it be the same? Could they truly be satisfied once they resumed their old lives, or would they yearn for those connections and friendships they'd made on the strange, small world?

Deep thoughts, while scrubbing bits of egg and jam off of plates.

As she reached for the next dish, there was a heavy thumping at the door. Rialynn froze and spun around, glancing at each person in the room. Her father's heavy brow had beetled, and he waved at the small party as if to usher them back toward Rialynn's room. Picking up the hint, she crept as quietly across the floorboards as she could, touching a finger to her lips. At least they didn't have to worry about Duster being stealthy.

K'pandolu paused as well, glancing between each of the other people in the wall and the door, and nodded to Rialynn. She stepped back into Rialynn's rooms, steps soft, and waited to hear what came next.

Rialynn's fathered frowned as he crossed the floor with his big, heavy, floor-creaking steps. He glanced back to make sure the rest of his guests were nowhere to be seen before opening the door.

"Bit early for a house visit," he thundered gruffly.

"Checking to see if you were all right. Heard you had some visitors," spoke another voice, more difficult to hear from where they were huddled out of sight. "Not like you to be so welcoming, Gert, wanted to make sure no one forced their way in and made free with your home."

"Throat's not cut yet."

There was a long silence as the two men measured one another.

"Who are your guests?"

"Who said I had guests?"

"Don't play, Gert. When a hermit buys a horse and big piles of food, I think it's clear what's going on, don't you?"

"..."

"Stand aside. On orders of his lordship, we are commanded to search the premises."

Rialynn stiffened sharply, and immediately pushed open the window in her room, waving her friends over. "Go go go!"

K'pandolu hissed a curse, and grabbed Duster's shirt, pulling him up and shaking him awake. "No time to think, come on!" An unpleasant wake up, certainly, but better than being caught. Not to mention her distinct lack of grace in trying to get out the window, but she'd take what she could get. They might need that second horse after all.

Duster was not the sort to moan and groan when woken up rudely. It had happened enough times at home and on the road for it to remain unpleasant, but not worth complaining about. Shaking him did the trick, seeing that he cracked his eyes open.

However, the apparent panic sobered him up enough to grab hold of his armor and shoes as K'pandolu worked on sliding out the window. The socks muffled his steps while he hurried beside her, and after slipping on his boots, helped out the miqo'te with a push. He followed suit by grabbing hold of the top of the window frame and swinging his legs out while grabbing hold of his armor in his free arm.

Ramza would not run if it meant leaving others in danger.

"Your father...will he be alright?" he whispered to Rialynn. The man has shown them kindness the past evening, and he did not deserve to suffer for it.

He did not make to follow K'pandolu and Duster out of the window just yet. "You should go. They may recognize you."

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