melodiesoflife | Prelude || The Festival Of Light

Prelude || The Festival Of Light

Characters: All the "Heroes of Light."
Where: Aqures Ixen.
When: The 3rd of August, final day of the Festival of Light. The Heroes of Light will awaken early in the morning.
Summary: The Heroes of Light awaken in Aqures Ixen and are informed by their assigned Moogles of what the situation and what their destinies are. This a log for them to react to the situation, meet each other and optionally participate in activities provided by the Festival of Light.
Warning: N/A

Where you were or what you were doing— It does not really matter. Not any more. Within an instant, the world around you collapses. Reality twists and shatters... Or maybe you are the one who is collapsing and shattering away from reality as you knew it. No matter what the answer is, it will only take a few seconds for you to find yourself sinking into a void, your world vanishing into the distance. There is nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see. Even you feel different: all the powers you might once have had, are now gone. It is silent, cold and it feels as though life itself is slipping out of you.

At this moment, when it looks as though nothing but a never-ending void awaits you, a red Crystal forms before you. In this void, its warmth compels you to grab it. Upon doing so, you can hear a soft, soothing voice speaking:

"Wake up."

Soon, the void itself vanishes and is replaced by distant noises of engines. Had it all been nothing more than a dream? The soothing voice repeats its call one more time, but is soon replaced with a much less graceful "Wake up, Kupo!" Hand clutched on your Crystal, the call of the Moogle may finally wake you up. But you are no longer in your world, nor in the void. You are before the Crystal of Fire, in the third district of a city called Aqures Ixen. At this point, you may realize the engine noise actually originates from an Airship flying low over the city and headed to dock beneath the castle. As if it wasn't strange enough, your clothes have changed as well. They are now a reflection of the Jobs you are wielding. Last but not least, you are surrounded by Moogles, small and fluffy creatures who are more than happy to tell you about everything you want to know, about your 'destiny' as a Hero of Light, about what awaits you.

Or at least, they will tell you everything they do know, which isn't much in the end.

Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be any citizens aside from Moogles in the vicinity. Indeed, the population of Aqures Ixen seems to be busy elsewhere in the city-- The Moogle will tell you there currently an event named the Festival of Light, which most people are attending. But you are not alone! It probably will not be long before you realize there are plenty of people like you all around, and if somehow you do not realize it, the Moogle who woke you up will be more than happy to inform you there are others like you around. Maybe with their help, you will be able to find out what is happening to you.

— Final Day —
The Festival of Light is a yearly event held at Aqures Ixen to celebrate the victory of the "Heroes of Light" over the "Calamity from the Skies" two thousands years ago, or so do the legends say. Whether people believe in the legends or not, this is an occasion for them to have fun and spend time with family and friends. The Festival is held from the 28th of July to the 3rd of August.

Unfortunately, most attractions and events are over by the third of August. Yet, there is enough to do, should the newly arrived Heroes of Light favor spending time looking at the attractions rather than panicking about their situation. The festival ends at midnight.

Theater Play
— Ninth District || 14:00 —

There is a large theater stage installed in the 9th district-- It is probably only temporary by the look of it. There is quite a crowd seated to watch the play about to unfold, as well as numerous people standing beneath the seats or sitting on the ceilings because they couldn't get a seat. After the audience grows quiet, a woman with long silver hair and green-ish skin steps onto the stage to address the audience.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight's performance is a story that takes place long, long ago! At the time when the Ancients reigned over the planet, when the Calamities from the Skies landed on this world and waged war against all forms of life. When our story begins, the Ancients are on the brink of extinction and gathering the last of their forces to fight. And now people of Aqures Ixen and visitors from distant lands, we proudly present 'The 4 Heroes of Light'!"

After this, the play starts and will last for roughly one hour and a half. The main characters appear to be four Heroes of Light, respectively dressed as a Warrior, Monk, Black Mage and White Mage. Other characters include the Calamity from the Skies played by the silver-haired woman, an Ancient scientist and the Princess of Crystallis. The story appears to be a highly romanticized version of the tale the Moogles told the characters earlier. As the play unfolds, there is a love story between one of the Heroes of Light, the Warrior, and the Princess of Crystallis. At the end of the play, the Heroes of Light successfully defeat the Calamity from the Skies, but the Warrior has to sacrifice himself and die in order to protect the Princess of Crystallis.

Culinary Attractions
— Fourteenth District || Anytime —
What would a festival be without free food and banquets? Not really a festival. In the fourteenth district, there is a banquet and many stands held by people from all over the world-- People from Balicea, Aerilon, Esdham, Flence, etc. There is even a stand held by former inhabitants of the Empire. All kind of food from all over the world can be found here-- Refined food, pastries, cakes, cooked meals, etc. It's virtually impossible not to find something to like in all of this, and it's all free until midnight!

Competitions
— Tenth & Eight District || 18:00 —

At 18:00, there will be a Blitzball match opposing the teams of Aqures Ixen and Balicea in the Blitzball Stadium. It is more of an exposition match, with nothing to be won aside from glory. Anyone is free to enter the stadium to watch the match. Following this, people - playable characters included - will be allowed to play some Blitzball Match on their own, if they want to try.

At the same time, a Triple Triad competition will be taking place in the eight district, in the campus of the university. Characters are free to enter the Triple Triad tournament, and if they do so they will be given very basic cards and explained the rules. With low level cards and whatsoever no experience, odds are that they may lose to much more experienced and competitive players, but what matters is trying, right? Whilst no characters may recognize him yet, it is notable that one of the NPCs, Wedge, is taking part in the competition. It's just a shame knowing he will lose in the semi-finals.

Trano Golsaucia's Stands
— Eleventh District || Anytime —
Specially for the occasions, stallholders from Trano Golsaucia traveled to Aqures Ixen and brought a few attractions to display what they can do. Noticeably, they brought Chocobos and will organize numerous races throughout the day, on an improvised tracks running around the houses. The Heroes of Light are more than welcome to try and bet, should they want to lose (or multiply) what few Gils they have. If they feel adventurous, they may even try to enter one of the races and ride a Chocobo-- At their own risks.

Aside from this, there are some more attractions worthy of attention. There is a shooting stand-- Coincidentally, all the targets are vaguely similar to the main antagonists of numbered Final Fantasy games. There is a treasure chest game, where characters are presented with ten chests and can open only one-- Prizes range from one Gils to gigantic plushie. There is also a fortune teller Moogle, it is notable that his predictions will always include either the character suffering hell or dying soon, in one form or another. Hopefully this moogle is just a scam.

Fireworks
— First District || 23:00 —

What better way to conclude a festival than fireworks? Fireworks will be launched from the Castle of Aqures Ixen starting 23:00, and will end at midnight, at the same time than the festival. No matter where you are in the city, anyone should be able to watch them easilly if they so wish. Unfortunately, it means falling asleep before midnight may be a bit hard with all the noise.

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The more she listened to him, the more serious her expression seemed to grow. For some reason, Snow's words weighed heavily, even if he didn't intend for them to. Most likely, it was the truth behind them. Just wanting to see him wasn't enough -- since he had been a warrior of Chaos.

Looking back up towards the sky again, it was a moment or two before she finally answered, though her tone was light, and a smile crept along the sides of her lips as she spoke. "You're right... it's sort of -- like being careful what you wish for, isn't it? But even more than that..." she paused, a hand coming up to her chest to rest there in a fist, "I think -- it might just be more important to go out and try to make those wishes come true ourselves, instead."

"I'm Yuna," she offered a slight nod of her head in greeting. "It's nice to meet you, Zelda. I suppose -- we arrived in this place at quite an interesting time, didn't we?" Yuna tilted her head to the side, smiling.

"Come on," she encouraged, nodding towards the head of the crowd. "Let's see what sort of tickets we can get. And in the meantime... I can tell you all about blitzball!" The excitement lit up her eyes, as she took her place in line, beckoning towards the other girl to follow suit.

Kaji smiles, he seems to appreciate Charlote's answer. "Couldn't have put it better, myself. The weight of information is tilted against us, at the moment. One of the areas that is closed up for the festival, but I definitely intend to take advantage of it as soon as I can, is what Shinji was calling the University sector, and the libraries there."

Kaji chuckles at her last question. "Oh, sorry, English spelling for Japanese names..." Kaji pauses and looks startled. "Wait. Am I speaking English!?" Kaji can speak English, but he wasn't thinking about it. He gestures between himself and Charlotte. "We can understand each other. That's-" That's something.

It strikes Kaji into silence for a moment, but he gestures for Charlotte's quill. He spells out the names 'Ryoji Kaji,' 'Rei Ayanami,' 'Shinji Ikari,' and 'Asuka Langley Soryu' on the corner of one of her scrolls, intentionally writing the letters in English.

What- the- hell? Kaji can only stand and watch the pair in bewilderment as moogle and- (Owner? Follower? What, exactly, do you call the relationship between the people and moogles?) as moogle and hero squabble.

Instead of making any effort to break up the argument or resulting flailing, Kaji looks at Shinji. "Moogles aren't edible, are they?"

Shinji's only response is to irritably frown.

Kaji idly scratches at that stubble that Luffy was making light of. "Are you two quite finished? This is why I didn't want to work with the kids." He shakes his head, and goes back to apparently leading the way, because he realizes at this point there is no getting rid of this guy.

The first food vendor has mixed kabobs, with all kinds of meat and vegetables, if it can go on a skewer, it seems to be on display here. Kaji looks at the stall curiously. "If this is a different world, I would have expected the food to be a lot different, too." But it looks awfully familiar.

"Pirate?"

She echoes that back uncertainly. Did he actually just say he was a pirate? But maybe that's why he seems so.... okay with everything. Pirates probably go on all kinds of adventures, so this might not even seem weird.

"Maybe they eat those big birds..."

She's seen the chocobos around, and they sort of look like giant chickens.

"Oh, I think we got the same story? Chosen to be a hero, special powers, world depending on you, blah blah." His tone is sarcastic, and he waves his hands grandiosely, then his voice drops and his eyes narrow. "I've heard this line once before, only it wasn't aimed at me last time."

He extends a hand. "Ryoji Kaji. Just Kaji's fine. And this is Shinji, apparently." The moogle waves politely.

"I don't know whether it's nice or terrible that we aren't alone in this." He scans the crowd again, and there are quite a few people standing out, visibly confused or irritated, like Cloud is.

[she returns the smile.]

My parents took me to a fireworks show once, back home, but this one is a lot bigger....

[Still, she'd rather be back home, watching a less elaborate show with her parents. Or Garry...]

She shakes her head. Ib from upper class suburbia, very different from a fantasy world like this.

“Not like this. I've been to cities. Sometimes we'd go shopping or see a show, but....”

She turns to gaze out the window in the direction of the city.

“It wasn't like this. There weren't any castles or heroes or anything....”

Turning back away from the window, she takes a seat at the kitchen table. Her next question is a little hesitant.

“Do you think...... the people back home..... Do you think they know we're gone?”

Because maybe it's like the art gallery. Maybe no one will notice and they'll just reappear wherever they were.

Maybe the guns are different here...

[Did he just say he was from mars? She's wondering if it would be rude to ask about that when he shoves the gun at her.]

Huh? Um...

[She glances to her moogle, who shrugs.]

Okay...

[She'll try a couple more times. No solid hits, but her last shot grazes the target.]

Aw, so close kupo! A little to the left...

I figure they'll send us back when we've saved the world. That's how it works in movies and video games. Or I guess it could be one of those 'dreaming all along' endings.

So... what kind of job did you have back in your world?

[The hat is making him think cowboy. Has he foiled stage coach robberies? Nagisa is imagining stagecoach robberies.]

Why do kids always ask the hardest questions? It feels like there is a particular answer she wants to hear, but Kaji doesn't know it. Kaji decides in an instant that he shouldn't share his suspicions that his own world has been destroyed. Or, if his world wasn't destroyed, then it's a comfort to him that no one would miss Ryoji Kaji. But, what answer would be a greater comfort to Ib?

"If they do," he slowly decides to answer, "then I'm sure they're looking for you. And they'll be happy to see you when we get this all sorted out and we can send you back."

And then he waits for the reaction, silently hoping that was the right answer.

Zelda reached out and pulled her moogle close when the woman asked about his hat. Kupola was fine with it and sat happily kicking his little legs while sitting in her arms. It was Zelda's idea for him to wear the hat. She had altered one they found earlier to resembles Link's hat.

"I got it for him. It reminds me of home." Her voice was gentle but her arms tightened slightly around Kupola. "...and what it means to be a true hero." It gave her strength, reminding her of her hero and friend. Someone she wasn't sure she would see again.

"It is nice to be met with such celebrations." Yuna's excitement was contagious and Zelda found herself smiling along with her as they moved through the crowd. She felt giddy as they moved and her excitement rose with each step. Even though she had no idea what they were heading towards.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed but soon the crowd opened up and before them expanded a large arena with a sphere of water hanging in midair. Zelda's eyes went wide and she stopped to stare at the arena. "It's amazing." Her voice was just a whisper. She might have heard about the game but seeing it was something else entirely.

Shelke's own moogle was engrossed in one of the nearby games, but Shelke looked up, watching the little creature struggling to keep up her his new master.

Shelke turned her gaze back to the woman, studying her for a moment. "Did you arrive here with a crystal today as well?"

We don't have fireworks like this at my home. It's nice to be able to see them.

[Though she wishes that he was here with her.

Her eyes look down at the girl with a smile, she looks so young but judging by the moogle nearby she is also a chosen hero.]

Can I watch with you? Kupola here fell asleep shortly after the fireworks started.

Zelda steadied the little moogle in her arms, trying to comfort him and looked up with a breathless smile. "Yeah. It's been a little overwhelming to be honest."

Sometimes she felt like she was the one taking care of the moogle versus the other way around. "I guess you did too?"

"You too. I guess."

Good with social interaction, Zojja was not. The colorful display continued to explode in the night sky and it was enough to make her forget about this whole Hero of Light business just for a little while. During a short lull in the show, she asked, "So, if you're not human, what are you?"

"Yeah..." he said, albeit a bit absently.

Yuna had the right of it, and Snow knew it. Sitting around and wishing and pining and hoping never got him anywhere. Even now, as he stared up at the sky, he wasn't sure what he would wish for these days, anyway. He used to wish for deliverance. For forgiveness. To see Serah again.

Snow used to wish for death.

Sure, things had turned out way better than he'd ever expected or even wished for them to, but nothing had changed for him until Lightning had gotten him up off his ass and moving. When he thought about it like that, maybe wishing was kind of pointless. The only problem with taking action, though, was the incredible tendency he had to make things worse every time he tried to make them better. He constantly felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, in that regard. If only Lightning was here now, too, she would know what to do. She always knew what to do. That was why she had been Etro's Knight and Bhunivelze's Chosen, and Snow was just... well, just some schmuck.

"It won't be easy, though," he went on. "In a new world like this, you can never know what to expect. All the rules change, and some get thrown out the window completely."

He sighed and shook his head. Thoughts like that were counterproductive. He was being unfair to himself again, dwelling on the negatives. Blind optimism was no good either, but he found himself more often than not having difficulty in finding a nice balance between the two.

"I guess that's why there's so many of us," he concluded. "Heroes of Light, I mean. As long as we stick together, nothing's impossible, right?"

Edited 2014-08-08 08:10 (UTC)

Well, if everything so far hadn't been enough hints, the bit about the hate reminding her what is means to be a true hero was confirmation enough. At least, this revelation calmed her down enough that she didn't pay attention to the poor person in charge of the chest mini-game.

"... So you are a friend of Link, are you not?" She asked as she still looked at the hat before looking back at Zelda. Even if they probably weren't thinking about the same Link.

"I'm a descent of the goddess Hylia." Her voice is soft and the smile stays on her lips.

The fireworks had a similar effect on Zelda. They were beautiful and the bursting colors were a perfect distraction. This whole day felt like a distraction and she waited for the realization of their situation to return.

Zelda's expression instantly became hopeful as she heard the purple haired woman say his name. "You know Link? Have you seen him?" She had been looking, to see if her hero had also woken in this new world but she hasn't been able to find him.

Her moogle wiggled uncomfortably as her grip tightened once again on the over sized marshmallow.

Had he heard her right? Did she just say his name? It couldn't be. Perhaps he'd just misheard her. Or part of him was so burdened with finding Zelda that her similar appearance had made him want to hear her say his name?

Either way, he brushes it off and stands before her with a finger at his chin.

"I'm sorry for bothering you. My name is Link. I come from a land known as Skyloft. I didn't want to assume but.. Your ears."

Using both hands he pinches the tips of his own, shorter tips, giving them a flick as he smiles at her softly.

"They look a lot like my friend Zelda's. You wouldn't happen to know anything about Hyrule or the Goddess Hylia, would you?"

The lad merely laughs it off, picking up a large mug and downing a bit of water before he's able to respond. With a sigh of relief, he turns back to respond to his savior.

"Yeah! I'll be okay! Not the first time it's happened! Shishishishi~!!"

Smacking a hand against his knee, he settles a hand at his hip and extends the other out to the other dark-haired male.

"I owe ya' one. M'name's Luffy!"

Which kind of ramen?! There was more than one?! Noodles were a very serious subject.. Well, food in general was a very serious subject for Luffy, and one he did not take lightly. If there was even a slim prospect of ingesting delicious food, he'd leap into the fray and see what culinary adventures there were to experience.

Letting go of the other male, Luffy crosses his arms over his chest and snorts from his nose.

"I like ramen."

He says it so matter-of-factly, like it should just make sense that ALL ramen was the same, and all of it very delicious.

Before the taller gentleman and his associate can discern whether or not the food is actually of Japanese origin, Luffy and Pakku have already started their agenda in devouring the entirety of the stands already made kabobs. The moogle is at least able to know that skewers do not make for good sustenance, while his human could stand to learn a thing or two as he chokes and coughs up the bamboo with a dissatisfied glare.

"Mister Cook! Why puts these in there? They taste awful!"
"They hold- *MUNCH* the food on there, Luffy!"
"Oh.. I guess that makes sense."

For poor Kaji, the pair seems to have all but forgotten that he had led them there, helping themselves without offering not out of being impolite, but due to the severity that hunger brought.

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Prelude || The Festival Of Light

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