Anytime throughout the month of December!

[charming_jerk]

[A - Aqures Ixen
Johnny spends a lot of time out in Aqures Ixen playing music to trying to get tips by busking, and Christmas season is the best season for this. It can be tough to play a guitar when your hands are cold, but it's worth it as folks are feeling more generous this time of year. Normally he tries to play more local songs since they get him better attention and tips, but every once in awhile he can't help but stick in something from home. And what a better time to play an Earth Christmas song while getting to do his best Lemmy impersonation?

Maybe this one won't get him as much money, but he sure looks like he's having fun trying to rock out as hard as one can on an acoustic guitar.]

[B - Christmas Markets
Johnny's never been a good at gifts, or so he feels anyway. Right now he's wandering around various shops and stalls looking very put out. He could probably use some help. Dare you?]

[C - Trano Goldsaucia
While he signed up to be a bodyguard against the Calamity creatures, Johnny didn't realize how tough the monsters here were. Taking on a Calamity Ochu by himself was probably a bad idea, even with two maxed out Jobs. Right now he's losing due to the Poison it's inflicted on him more than anything. If you're out in the cold trying to get earn some monster-hunting money, maybe you can step in.]

Comments

[mindofathief]

I was expected to save the world at one point or another since I was small. It ended up going differently than I expected.

[He nods and follows Johnny across the street. He's not much of a drinker, but bars are better places to talk about life stories than on a cold street.]

And until he got back, I didn't know if we did it right.

[charming_jerk]

I guess I shouldn't complain how I only been dragged to one other world that needed saving before this. [It could always be worse. He's still not sure if Crystallis's fate is worse than Exsilium's or not yet. There were a lot of parallels as of late.]

So, things went right, right? Cuz if Crystallis wanted me for a good track record, I don't know if I count. We messed Exsilium's world up pretty bad before things evened out.

[mindofathief]

...In the end, yeah. The world was remade, and I think humanity's not going to mess it up again...Hopefully. If I bring the Egg of Light back, we'll have an easier time.

[He breathes out, the heavy puff of air visible in the cold. At least he'll not have royally messed up with this. He'll bring it back, and things will go on smoothy.]

What happened in Exsilium?

[charming_jerk]

Damn. Sounds intense. ["The world was remade"? Wonder what it was like before that. Thanks to Exsilium, he's got an idea.]

Um, well, Exsilium - that whole version of Earth, really - was pretty fucked up. Nuclear weapons wiped out a ton of the population 'n ruined the environment. There was like, this dictatorship that was in charge of most of the Earth, really awful stuff. The Initiative was the group rebellin' against 'em. The trick they had up their sleeve that the United Earth didn't was goddamn time travel. And they could pull us in from other dimensions. Which was good for them but shitty for us. Got dragged into their mess without so much as being asked.

[Grimacing, he takes a long drink, because even thinking about Exsilium calls for booze.]

But hey, guess what. Fucking with time really messed things up. Things started... overlapping. Or there were just holes in time 'n space. People the Initiative dragged in sometimes just disappeared without a trace, without warnin'. And right before I left there, more time 'n space holes opened up, takin' practically everyone with 'em. That's how I ended up here.

[Johnny had gone from one fire to another too, like Duster.]

I guess the good news, if there is any, was that the Initiative did manage to change things pretty drastically regardin' the United Earth, mostly for the better. [Mostly.]

[mindofathief]

...It was.

[He doesn't know if Johnny will understand the state of the Nowhere Islands, seeing that everyone was somewhere confused by the Chimeras, but as Johnny describes Exsilium, Leder's words echo in his mind. Mankind destroyed the world themselves. There was nowhere to escape. He wonders...]

I don't know what happened, but when I was really small, the Nowhere Islands were the only place in the world that wasn't touched by whatever was happening elsewhere. I was told that humanity ruined everything, but whether by war or chimeras or something else...I don't know.

When I came here, I thought we failed. I thought that we ended up destroying the rest of the world and that my friends were dead. In a way, I have to thank Palitutu to bringing me back and showing me that wasn't true.

[charming_jerk]

Huh. Not a lotta good things we can say about Palitutu.

[Johnny hadn't returned to his world like others had, and wondered if it was because Exsilium was just too broken. Maybe it was for the best he didn't get to. He taps his fingers on his glass, thinking.]

If we manage to save this place, I wanna stay here. I don't wanna get sent back. I mean, I have no idea if we'd even have a say to that kinda thing. We didn't exactly get one in comin' here, after all.

[mindofathief]

Yeah...

[They could go back, but that would mean returning to the Rift Between Worlds, and they weren't welcome again. There had to be an exception somehow. He hopes.]

If Palitutu can bring our things into this world, we can find a way back. And if we have out own way to travel, we can see each other again.

...I'll miss a lot of you guys.

[charming_jerk]

[Johnny thinks that over for a moment, too, before picking up his glass to give Duster a quiet toast.]

Yeah. I hear that. This crowd ain't so bad.

[mindofathief]

[He responds by lifting his glass and tilting his head.]

Let's hope.