melodiesoflife | [backdated] Touch What?

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[backdated] Touch What?

Who: Reno, Yuffie, and Johnny
What: Pursuing a hamster of the friendly variety
Where: Aqures Tosf
When: October 9 - 11

Reno had heard rumors about a monster so awful, so terrifying, it might have been the most feared creature on Crystallis. Another rumor said that there were friendly ones, or at least one, somewhere on the island of Aqures Tosf.

And the creature that inspired such awed whispers... was a hamster.

Reno couldn't believe it. It sounded absolutely ridiculous. All he had to do was touch a hamster, and he could receive a blessing? It probably wasn't even true. But what the hell -- he could do with a short vacation after that time looping bullshit. If he fought a few monsters in an old ruin, it wasn't the worst way to spend the time. It wasn't drinking, but considering the last few times he got shitfaced he ended up sleeping with strangers and falling into bad habits again, it would have to do.

He sent out a few recruitment messages via Mognet and the Quest Board, but it was understated. He wanted something small. After all, they were looking for a hamster -- they didn't want to scare it away. He needed just enough eyes to find it. And since people were so scared of them, Reno didn't really expect much of a response anyway.

So he was more than a little surprised to see who did show up to the meeting point. Maybe he should have signed his name. Because they seemed pretty surprised to see him, too.

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Johnny gave Yuffie a skeptical look at those comments. This trip was going to be an interesting one.

Ultimately, he shrugged, agreeing with Yuffie.

"I'm not about to let rumors about hamsters scare me off. If they really are that tough, then I definitely want to try and fight one. See if somehow somethin' that tiny really is that nasty."

He looked at Reno, since he was in charge of this little mission. "Guess we got a lotta traveling to do, huh. We need supplies or anything before he hit the road?"

Well. At least he still had a team going.

Reno nodded. "Yeah. Heard it's s'posed ta' start gettin' pretty chilly at night out there. Figure we'll go grab some sleep-sacks, couple bottles a' water, whatever else we think we'll need that can fit in a backpack. Airship leaves in two hours, so we should have plenty of time."

Yuffie shifted her backpack with a smile.

"I got everything I need."

Which didn't look big enough to have even half of what he had just listed. The only problem was that Yuffie packed everything she had on her and she didn't have things she didn't need like extra clothing, warm clothing, sleeping bags, food. She's under the assumption that she'd figure it out as she went.

"Where are we heading? Like directions?" She pointed behind her and then to the right as if it was one of those two directions that they could travel in.

"Yeah, I got most of that, but could use to pick up a few other things if we got two hours to kill. Guess we could grab some lunch or somethin'." Might as well talk over plans over something to eat.

"Yeah, where the hell are hamsters, anyway? All I know is people here seem to think they're bloodthirsty monsters. Which I can't even imagine. I mean, they're kinda shitty pets, but maybe they're different in the wild?" Johnny didn't even sound like he believed those words.

Reno looked at Yuffie dubiously, but she seemed fairly confident. Whatever. He wasn't going to argue with her, even if she clearly wasn't carrying any of that. At least he'd had the sense to get a sleeping bag before coming out here. Anything else... well, he'd figure it out. He didn't want to be the only one having to go shopping for things, it would just rub in how new he still was.

At least Johnny agreed with him. Or was humoring him. Reno wasn't sure.

"Aqures Tosf," he answered, slinging his rolled up sleeping bag over his shoulder. He started to walk toward a nearby eatery, purposely choosing one that he knew was near a basic convenience store. "So we'll hafta' split the trip an' get a boat outta Balicea."

"Ugh."

Yuffie's shoulders dropped when he mentioned a boat. She's just going to cling for dear life and it's going to suck. Perhaps the weird potion that Mooshoo made might actually work but there was no way of knowing until she was on the wooden rocky death trap of doom.

"I'll follow you guys then." She shifted her pack before looking expectantly between Reno and Johnny. She'll make comments but she's completely fine with just following along. She liked working with others and Johnny was a little like older grumpy Cloud and Reno was Reno. It's almost like being home... sorta

"That's a hell of a hike. Back to that place, huh. It's a wonder anyone knows they exist all the way out there."

Johnny followed along to grab a few supplies himself. Couldn't hurt to have a little extra water and food, especially considering how much Johnny could eat in a day. Hence his suggestion of lunch.

"Maybe we oughta let people know we're goin'. Y'know. In case we never come back from chasin' such a big, bad monster." He grins a little. He can't take the stories about hamsters seriously.

Reno shrugged. "From what I heard, place is a ruin. Prob'ly a bunch a' stories about it. Not surprising one of 'em turned into... well, this. But I wouldn't mind seein' what's left a' Aqures Tosf anyway. An' if we touch some hamsters on the way t' find some magical one, don't see the harm."

Because they were hamsters. It couldn't be that bad.

He quirked an eyebrow over at Johnny. "Like who?" The words came out before he'd thought about it. There was no one here he would have thought to notify. Even the people technically "from home"... But maybe his companions had people who would worry about them. He shook his head.

"Send a letter, unless yer bringin' yer moogles, too." Reno knew he sure wasn't bringing Sohma. Little furball would probably just get in the way.

“It’s a ruin now” Yuffie remembered her time in the past and it’s still freaky to think about. She peeks over to look at Johnny curiously. “I know that Reno wasn’t here yet when we were there… were you?” She didn’t remember despite the rippling pectorals and horns.

Her feet are almost silent as she kept pace with the others. Her legs had to move twice as fast to keep up thanks to the height different but she wasn’t about to complain. She was used to having to keep up with Vincent after all, who never slowed down during missions.

“I’ll get Mooshoo to pass something out for us. He said he might come half way to visit people he knows in one of the other places.” Yuffie hadn’t really been paying attention to what her moogle had said, which happens a lot.

“Anyway, there isn’t much to see there.”

"...No, yeah, I was there." He was at ground zero when things went down. It was hard to forget.

There was no way Johnny's moogle was coming along; the two were almost never seen together. Mogrius didn't approve of his charge's attitude and personality much at all, but still did what we was asked of. Which was very little.

"Good, cuz there's no way in hell Mogrius would come along."

"Whaddaya mean, you were there?" Reno stopped and glanced between Yuffie and Johnny. He'd heard that that place had been destroyed decades earlier. How could they have possibly been there at that time?

"You can't 've seen it like that, it's been destroyed for, like, twenty years or somethin'. That's why there's monsters in it."

Yuffie squints and then makes a funny face that suggested that Reno was about to hear a small fraction of a story that might not make sense. It was probably a good thing that Johnny was also here for this one.

"You see, a lot of people died so that we could just through time by Kalki bitch of Crystallis." She really hates Kalki. "So that we could be there when it exploded and set of some chain reaction that did something to the fiery crystal that made it crystally. Anyway, we then turned to crystal ourselves because we couldn't mess up the timeline and then we were in stasis for 27 years or so and then we woke up a few months ago."

Long story shortened.

"A few months ago, we got sent back in time to Aqures Tosf. To before it was ruins. Where we found out why it was ruins."

Even talking about it was elevating Johnny's blood pressure. But that had mostly to do with the time travel and its after effects, which he believes was the time loops.

"Kalki decided that we needed to see what happened, instead of just tryin' not to be an asshole for a change, and talk to us about it. Because nothin' solves problems like time travel." A lot of sarcasm drips from that last sentence.

Reno was trying to wrap his head around this. "So Kalki -- she's with that Empire that attacked this place a couple months ago, right? She sent you all back in time... to there. To see something. And it got destroyed, and then everyone was crystallized?"

Was that it? What was the point of that? Reno scratched his head, hard, trying to figure out what Yuffie had meant. "But whaddaya mean a bunch a' people died so you could jump through time? I mean, I can't imagine everyone jumpin' in line to sacrifice themselves, an' you already said Kalki started things..."

He didn't see the connection. Sure, people would die during a battle of that magnitude; and surely people would die when an entire city like Aqures Tosf was destroyed. He hadn't heard of time travel magic before, but hey, he'd already been punted to two different parallel universes now, he'd let that slide. But were they saying that that magic was fueled by mass death?

Reno didn't like the sound of that one bit.

Just hearing the name Kalki made Yuffie's skin crawl. It was one of many things the young princess didn't talk about and neither Johnny nor Reno was around to even know about it; at least not that she remembers. She barely knew Johnny existed until recently.

As they continued their conversation Yuffie's fingers began to curl into tight fists. She didn't even realize that she was doing it until her nails began to bite into her palm.

"She used the souls of those who died during the war here to power the fire crystal. The crystals are connected to life here, like the life stream from home. She used that power to send us all back in time." Yuffie didn't know about the time loop but it wouldn't be hard to make the connection. Kalki was smart and knew how to use the crystals. In a way Yuffie helped her learn about the crystals.

"It's why she started a war here, because we had to be in the past. Having the heroes in the past caused the fire crystal to call us in the first place." That part didn't really make sense. "So we caused the city to be destroyed."

"That's pretty much it." Johnny wasn't going to pretend he understood all of it. "Just in case you were wonderin' how fucked up this entire situation was, there's some more evidence for ya."

This sure wasn't going to start their trip off in a good mood, but Reno and all the others who've come to Crystallis since deserved to know all of this.

"We barely know a damn thing about crystals here, 'n what they can do. But Kalki knew a ton."

"Shit, yo." Reno shook his head, only pausing for a moment. It was a lot to take in. All the more reason he should keep working at that lab. These were secrets they needed to know.

"Hopefully these magic wisdom hamsters aren't a waste of time, then," he grumbled, shifting his backpack on his shoulder. "We can use all the help we can get."

He stopped at the row of storefronts and glanced over his shoulder at his companions. "Shopping first, or food?"

"FOOD!"

Food was generally Yuffie's first vote but she wouldn't argue with whatever the other two wanted to do. Well, she'd argue if it was something really dumb. She wanted to get going and check out these fuzzy little hamsters for herself.

"I think it's Reno's treat this time." She smiled over towards Johnny. "Don't you think so?"

Johnny gives Yuna a grin, then gives Reno a hearty pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I think yer right. I mean, he might just be marchin' us to certain death, so I think he could cover our last meal."

Yuffie, he expected that from. Johnny... well, Reno supposed he'd sort of earned it with all the teasing. He still shot the other man a flat look.

"You guys suck, y'know that?"

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

It was strange, being the "responsible" one and trying to stick to a schedule, but Reno managed it. Somehow. Miraculously. Not that he'd never done it before, but that had always been on a job -- not wrangling Yuffie and a hot half-demon. Reno supposed he could try to handle it like a job, but he wasn't sure he wanted to. Johnny and Yuffie weren't his subordinates... but they weren't the same as Turks, either, when it came to teammates. They were... Reno wasn't sure what they were.

Complicated.

They managed to get more provisions and gear after Reno did, in fact, pay for lunch (and stow away the mental note that they now owed him). It wasn't until they were finally on the airship that Reno was able to start relaxing.

And promptly stop relaxing again once they reached the harbor at Balicea. Reno had though it would be alright, and it was the most practical way to get to Aqures Tosf, but... Looking at the various ships and boats, he couldn't help but get tense.

Yuffie considered the word responsible to mean not fun at all. The airship ride wasn't so bad but she wished that Reno would lighten up. She tried to tease and talked to Johnny some but she got nowhere with that either. It was so long and so boring, though she wasn't alone so there was that much.

When they get to the boat portion of the trip Yuffie moaned; loudly. She made all of her displeasure known.

"This is going to suck! I hate boats!" She had the motion sickness potion that Mooshoo gave her when she traveled but it never completely worked when it came to the sea. Either Reno or Johnny will have to deal with a sick Yuffie clinging to them and trying to remain steady.

"This world needs Dramamine. I mean, this world needs a lot of shit it doesn't have, but actual motion sickness medicine should be one of 'em." Johnny does give Yuffie a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, at least. It's not like they had a lot of options when it came to transportation.

Johnny had been noticing that Reno seemed awfully tense about this whole trip, too. Personally, he hadn't felt much one way or another about it; just being out on the road doing some work was fine by him, no matter what the dangers might be. But eventually, he'd ask Reno about it.

"Dude, you seem way uptight about this trip. You sure ya really wanna do it?"

"Huh?" Reno snapped up and stared at Johnny for a moment. "Oh, uh, yeah -- yeah, I'm good."

Johnny's honest concern was actually nice, though. And, well, the only way things were going to get less awkward was to just face them. Sooner rather than later. Just... maybe not with Yuffie listening. She was already needling him about his sexual preferences as it was.

"Yuff, go grab our tickets?" He gave her a handful of gil, more than she needed.

Yuffie gave him a look as if he had just sentenced her to death. "Why do I have to do it!?" Though her argument wouldn't get very far because she really wanted to get on the boat so that they could get off of it and be on their way.

With a grunt she turned on her heel and walked towards the ticket counter. She's going to be as quick so Reno might want to say what he has to say quickly.

"This is gonna be a long trip," Johnny muttered, mostly to himself. Dealing with a sick Yuffie the entire time wasn't going to be fun, but this was a job, after all.

Johnny picked up their bags, ready to go for when Yuffie got back. He turned to Reno, seeing that it was clear something was bothering the man. He wasn't going to press too much if he didn't want to talk, but that didn't mean Johnny wasn't going to be joking with him. Maybe he'd lighten up.

"You really that scared of a hamster, man? I didn't know I was supposed to get my will in order before this trip. Just bury me with my electric guitar, okay?"

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I'm imagining Boondock Saints "we need rope" now

You and your damn rope

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Want to Fast-forward some?

sure

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