middleofsomewhere | Let's Get Down to Business

Let's Get Down to Business

Let's Get Down to Business

On day twenty two of the month of Llama a message comes up on the ICP's.

Voidtreckers have many questions about what happened on system #93426194992 and the entity that was encountered. Analysis shows that the entity on system #93426194992 was also present on systems #86525656412355 and #2207385.

Though it is not known what that entity is, it is clear that it possesses some level of mind influence and complex illusionary magic.

There is a void nexus on system #62138 inhabited by a religious order that, due to their close proximity to the void, employ mental techniques to help with such illusions.

We will be visiting system #62138 for three Days. The Voidtrecker express will remain with the Voidtreckers during this time and due to the nature of the void nexus it is highly advisable to sleep on board.

System #62138 is a wet world. All Voidtreckers will be safe but are advised to keep their SCAs on at all times. This should be the standard on all systems.

THE VOID NEXUS
From the windows of the Voidtrecker Express, passengers see the Void Nexus as a vast island surrounded by darkness, punctuated with rivets of colours running through the sky that casts a glow of blues and violets as they descend closer to the surface. The world faintly blurs the way one’s sight does when sinking into the depths of an ocean, the train manoeuvring around tall rocks that rise like digitates, a sea-green hue deepening over the rocky land outside.

The train doors open from each carriage, and luckily it’s not a flood that welcomes them but clammy air cool to the skin. They come out to a section of land sparse of more than tunicate-like plants under their feet, pools of silvery water otherwise sunk between small pathways that lead like bridges forward.

Which is likely their destination, a vast coral-like structure with a high opening awaiting them - and as they get closer, a being far taller than any of the Voidtrecker themselves.

ARRIVAL

They are met by a tall robed figure. First glance will show them to be a deep purple in colour with a domed head and long tentacles sprouting from their chin that sway slightly when they move. Still they nod deeply and their mouth moves into a shape that could be interpreted as a smile.

"Welcome to those of the VoidTrecker Express. Your arrival was foretold and we have awaited you. Please accept our hospitality."

They lead them onwards, explaining that outsiders are always welcome here but ask them to remain within the public parts of the temple. They further explain that their order is for the most part a silent one. There is no restriction on the voices of guests but they should not be insulted if the members of the order do not answer.

Once a small tour has been conducted the Voidtreckers are left to their own devices to train or explore as they see fit.

IT'S A TRAINING MONTAGE
Going through to the back of the temple will lead them outside once more, the gentle sound of falling water greeting them at what seems to be a distance. But yet - faint as it is to see, glistening in translucent silvers and pinks - the water is quite near and wide, spilling from the high mountain cliff that borders in an otherwise enclosed space. The pool takes up a large portion of this garden, of coral reef and circled stone pathways where every step must be considered, unless you’d like a surprise trip and dip.

Fortunately, the silver water here is light. Submerging yourself in it or sitting under its flow, you won’t find the hard rush of its weight over your heads and shoulders, and the same weightlessness follows you going under. You find that you can breathe and when you come away from the lake, your body and clothes are lightly damp at most.

Still, there is plenty of ground to walk along without going over the pool. However, the first steps of learning mental fortitude against illusionary obstacles will take you into...

[ MEDITATION. ] To combat irrationalities is to iron your own reactions to them. You are instructed to sit where you find it comfortable: those unused to mental training should keep to the shoreline, while the more intermediate may find taking the stone steps out to large limpet-shaped shells - sizeable to fit 3-4 people each - a better challenge. Those more daring should sit under the waterfall or to go into the water’s depths, where you at least don’t need to worry about breathing, or even getting that wet.

To get wet isn’t the purpose, fortunately. The purpose comes the moment you close your eyes - for as soon as you do, you feel. You sense. Some other, some thing, a presence your mind decides must be there. This sensation is lighter by the shore, but sitting above the water or submerging yourself inside it brings it stronger against you. In truth there is nothing there, no one but the other Voidtreckers, but the spell of the water - or is it the void within the water? - makes your brain think otherwise, logic not welcome company.

Being in groups can help ease the effects through the SCAs, but otherwise, true control comes down to yourself. Breaks are recommended, as there’s no point wearing down an already exhausted mind. Your mind is your defence. Strengthen it. Wield it as a weapon.

[ Combat. ]

Though not exactly what they are here for Voidtreckers will notice that this order of void worshipers train in a form of martial arts. They train outside, using the watery air as part of their movement. Training is done in large group sessions and without weapons. It has a strong focus of listening to the world around them and fighting in a way that makes them one with the world, using the environment to their advantage.

Even though that might not seem the most useful to people who won't be fighting in an environment such as this world, it is at least a good form of exercise.

Any voidtrecker who is curious is welcome to join in the training and those that show especial interest can take more specific lessons aimed at beginners.

TRAVELLING THE NEXUS
[ OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE. ] While the lake and surrounding temple will help to strengthen one’s mental defences with perseverance and training, there is more that can be done away from the temple, and the island is free to be explored. The Voidtrecker Express is stationed where it dropped everyone off, and returning to it will offer everyone a mental relief regardless of the levels of their ongoing training.

The marshland continues beyond the train, one route mostly made by the natural stone pillars that rise up from the ground like stalagmites. Higher cliffs can be climbed by those who wish to, if just for a higher view, curiosity, or privacy. From wherever you look, this island gives off the same impression as most of it already has: sea-like.

[ PLANTS. ] Underfoot, there is not earth-like grass or flowers, but seagrass, kelp, algae and more. They grow along the stone, idly waving as if submerged in water and pushed by unseen waves. Strange blue plants with purple-tipped tendrils will wiggle if touched, while at the higher levels, small bulbs of some kind cluster around the size of a fist. Types of plankton make the gnats of this nexus, too tiny most of the time to be noticed as more than dots to the eyes.

[ CREATURES. ] Also, don’t forget the fish. As tiny as a pinky finger, as big as a hand, the size of a human; they swim through the air, not particularly caring for the Voidtreckers, but also not looking to engage with them. The larger of the fish travel higher than the smaller, and those as big as whales farther up than even the taller cliffs can reach. For those that have any ideas of hunting, they will know - mysteriously, as if recalling the thought - that they should go for the larger fish, and not harm the younger, smaller ones. Those are tastier, after all.

[ STONE FOREST. ] Travel low or high, the way will take them to what appears to be a forest that spans across a large portion of the central island. But as the rest of the nexus is, this is no ordinary, woody land. Its trees are stone, coral, rising high and jagged, the water in the atmosphere denser in this jungle of rock. It turns the world a sea-green to move through, with plants and coral everywhere to be seen. The air denser, thicker, leaving small droplets of water on skin and clothes.

There are no real paths than the spaces between the ‘trees’, but there are guides to find your way to somewhere: pink jellyfish, or something of the sort floating around. They are the shiri as the monks call them, and looking upon them will tell you they will help you find where you need to go, that they will aid you if you get lost and think of them. And for those whose thoughts lean such a way, they will know that harming them will bring a greater injury to the individual who does so tenfold, and they will find no guidance at all on this nexus until they have repented.

Read: Enjoy being stuck on the train for the rest of the stay.

[ CONCH LAKE. ] For those less destructive, a short travel through the stone forest will lead them to a lake, with what can only be described as a conch shell gazebo accessible in its centre. Bubbles float up and around, balls of water made to linger by whatever strange force controls this place. They can be made to bounce away and around with a touch, and respond to being thrown as a ball might. Just, watch out: They like to burst at random, no matter the force used, scattering as tiny beads all over the air.

The water here is different from that around the temple, its colour more blue, but closer to aqua than what many are used to. Yet diving into it will have the similar properties that allows one to hold their breath for much longer than usual, and to move with an ease, like floating weightlessly. There’s no worry if they close their eyes here, a peace radiating from the pool; like a refuge from the trickery that lurks no matter where you are in this nexus.

Climbing out of the pool will have you damp, more appropriately soaked than the temple’s lake. There’s nothing like towels or a great way to dry off, but you can sit and hang around under the conch gazebo if you like.

Or perhaps messing around isn’t what brought you here, but the four iridescent slabs of stone that stand at intercardinal points at the edges of the lake, that speak of the Trials to the mind when you look upon them.

THE FOUR CAVERN TRIALS

There are four caverns, four trials, with each slab suggesting their test. Upon deciding where you will go, a shiri will come to guide your character through the forest to where the stone trees part, and a half an hour walk will lead Voidtreckers to a vesicular cavern.

You know as you approach the cave’s mouth that the shiri will guide you out if you need it, but they stay outside, leaving those searching for advanced training to journey on in themselves. Passengers descend, dots of light coming through the multiple holes above to illuminate the way as you go deeper into the cave.

And you won’t have to go far to find the crystals in any of the caverns, though there’s many pathways to go deeper in. Attacking the stones to break them won’t do much, but when you put your hand on one…

The illusions start, pulling in anyone nearby.

[ CAVE OF PERCEIVING. ]    Bend deceiving labyrinths into your own path.

What is real? What is not? This cave holds a large underground river flowing through it. The water is not too fast flowing or deep but it is cold enough to be a shock if anyone falls in.

Fall in they might for their task is to cross the river. The river is filled with stones large enough to hold a person as they cross. However not all of those stones are real, some are just illusions and if they step on the illusionary rocks they will fall through to the river below.

It is possible to get by on trial and error but the task will not be considered complete until they force their minds to see through the illusions are perceive the one true path.

[ CAVE OF ENDURANCE. ]    Wounds bleed and skin burns only to bodies that believe it.

This cave may differ between Voidtreckers. Sometimes it is a monster they must face or an environmental challenge to battle through.Perhaps the searing heat of a fire or the low altitude and freezing temperature of a mountain top. Perhaps a lizard with claws and teeth. The important part is not defeating the threat but to neutralise the damage. It's not real and the mind can overcome it.

All the caves are probably best faced in groups but this was especially so. They are unlikely to be able to make the damage unreal to start with and so there is likely to be a fight or struggle before they succeed.

[ CAVE OF HEART. ]    To accept crafted desires is to invite everlasting grief.

Here they are in a beautiful place. A meadow, a forest, a rocky beach. The weather is beautiful, not too hot not too cold. A little further in is something they want, something their heart yearns for.

They can't see it yet but they are sure they will, if only they go deeper into the grass, the trees, the water. It is there, just out of reach.

To pass this test they must walk away. Turn around and leave despite their heart calling to them to go deeper.

[ CAVE OF MIND. ]    Craft a weapon from your own vulnerabilities.

Fear does not have to be a weakness. The cave is filled with a lake and in the centre there is a bubble of water, it contains something they fear. They can't see it but they know it is there. Perhaps a person, a place, an object.

Facing a fear is one thing but this task asks for more than that. To accept the fear as part of them, to turn it into a strength to protect others.

This trial is the most personal and perhaps the most difficult. They must step into that space, knowing that they will face what they fear whilst also knowing that it won't be real and use that knowledge and acceptance to bring down the entire illusion, bubble, lake and all.

art sources: alien / landscapes / waterfall / caverns

OOC Information

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The answer gives him most of the information Inigo has to know.

And yet he can't help but let his gaze linger on the other for a few moments more. Like Inigo is checking to well and truly make sure that Tidus doesn't mind. That he isn't thinking about it. And even though Inigo can't be sure of it, since it's not like he can look directly into the other's mind.. he's pretty sure Tidus at least isn't feeling totally crappy about it.

Maybe he is just thinking about how to deal with that thing if they ever run into it again. It's a better, much more productive thought, and Inigo gladly latches onto it too, squeezing Tidus's hands as he does so.

"Yeah. We have people to protect, after all."

And they can't do that if they're too busy getting distracted by illusions, if not just outright manipulated by them.

He smiles a little, though there's still a faint hint of nerves in it that Inigo can't seem to quite get rid of. Maybe it's due to the fact that usually it wouldn't have been just the two of them here, making their way to the cave.

"This is our chance to get stronger."

He won't attack anyone this time.

It's what he has to tell himself; that none of this will be as bad as last time, that he'll have better control. That these trials aren't meant to make them succumb but to bolster them, strengthen them. Tidus can only hope so, and he'll cling as desperately onto that hope as Inigo does his hand.

Returning the squeeze, a look returned to the other guy.

"We don't let anything stop us. Right?" He raises their joined hands, held together like a fist. Or so Tidus makes it. "We make it through anything. We keep going! We won't let anyone down," he adds after a beat.

I won't harm you again, he repeats to himself, a promise close in his chest.

"R-Right," Inigo starts, still a tad unsteady, but then he smiles and tries again, focusing on their held hands.

It's going to be fine, Inigo tries to remind themselves, as the opening of the cavern becomes visible. The jellyfish hovers next to the opening, as if it's wordlessly telling them to go on with just the two of them.

It's going to be fine. He's not alone. This isn't going to be as dangerous as during the mission, anyway - since there's no real threat around here, and they can just haul each other out of the cave if necessary.

Deep within the pit of his stomach, he can't quite banish the nerves.

".. guess it's going to happen in there." Talk about an omnious cave entrance, right. Really setting the mood here.

Craft a weapon from your own vulnerabilities, the stone slab welcoming the way to this cavern had spoken to their minds. What that actually meant - who knew? The apprehension grips into his shoulders at the mouth of the cavern, but when hasn't it been a companion in tough situations.

It's as much to dispel it, to cast it aside, that Tidus lets go of Inigo's hand; but after first tugging it with him as he jogs forward, looking back at Inigo.

"Come on then, it's no time for hanging around! Let's go!"

--and Tidus is sprinting on in, worries and fears be damned. The ground dips under his feet at a slant as he hurries on in, pinpricks of light glowing from up above, and what awaits them soon becoming visible. A pooling lake in the centre, shimmering crystals all around. The mass, floating bubble hovering, waiting for them.

The cavern darkens as they get further, closer in. Or does it? Lights still coming from above, but also colour coming from the lake, beckoning them to keep up their spirits...if they had any real conviction in the first place, that is.

Tidus meets any challenge as he's one to do - with a straightened back, ready. If with his steps slow, eyes narrowed, cautious about what he'll meet.

...once he gets close to that bubble.

"Hey, wait up..!"

Inigo didn't quite see the sudden quicker pace coming, which means he's left behind for the faintest of moments before he's able to start jogging as well, running after Tidus as the other heads deeper en deeper into the cave.

He can't help but wonder where this path is going to bring them. Is there just going to be some illusion in the cave that they're meant to solve? Something that has to do with their vulnerabilities?

But once Tidus's pace slows, Inigo fully catches up with him, walking right next to the other as they come face to face with the lake.

And the bubble. It's like he instinctively knows that what they're looking for is in there as he stares at it, like something about it is calling out to the two of them.

".. Do we go in there?"

Most likely, right? But Inigo can't help but look for the verbal confirmation from Tidus anyway, like he just needs that bit of assurance.

"Together?"

They're always being pulled by some unknown instinct - instinct influenced by the world. This trial is no different, and the creeping worry of what may be already wraps around his body. Inigo nearby, concerned himself. But there's nowhere to go but forward.

'Together?'

"...Yeah," he says finally, fists clenched at his sides. Determined, a face put up to get him through this. They have to get through this.

Tidus glances at Inigo, nodding, and then as he turns back to the bubble, he doesn't wait any longer, except to know that Inigo is joining his step. Together, they said, and he won't rush off this second time, stepping into the water; the bubble a misty, smoky haze that expands to greet the both of them.

And a darkness welcomes the on the other side. A world ravished, ruined, winds howling - or is that something else? Groans and misery not silenced by the rumbling from the skies above, red thunder crackling along the clouds. Slackened figures with eyes blood red can be seen in every distance, patrolling, without people to go after - for the once living now decorate the ground around them. Friends of Inigo, friends of Tidus.

Pyreflies looming around their bodies, wailing their death cry.

Tidus swallows, refuses to let his mind be taken by the sight. He knows this is a lie - but what gnaws at him is his next move. What will he do? No, he won't hurt Inigo a second time -- he won't be made to fight!

The world rumbles, by some yet unseen figure up above.

The moment they enter the bubble, Inigo temporarily forgets Tidus is even there, just by the sight that greets them.

It's not quite Ylisse. There's differences enough that he can tell it's not Ylisse, but at the same time the sight feels familiar. It feels so much like what he's seen for years in the dark future he left. It's like some dark, twisted version of the worst things they've seen and experienced combined. He can see the Risen in the distance, there's creatures running around that definitely look more like monsters - fiends - rather than any of the wildlife he's seen in Ylisse. The pyreflies floating around, the empty faces of the bloodied people on the ground.

(It's not real, it's not real, he can see Roland and Taiki and they're not dead, they can't be--)

The only air Inigo can get comes in sharp bursts, and it's only then that he seems to realise the presence of the body next to him. His hand moves to grasp Tidus's once more, though tighter this time, desperate. Even if what they're seeing is not real, it hurts. It digs into too many bad memories.

Especially when he looks up at the sky. He doesn't know what's out there. It could be Grima, or Sin, or even both, but he doesn't want either of them to have to see it.

So Inigo does the only thing he can think of doing. Spotting what looks like an abandoned shack in the distance, he starts pulling Tidus right along in that direction by their joint hands, casting nervous glimpses up at the sky.

"Tidus, do you-- Do you think Sin is here?"

It's the scattered bodies that twist at Tidus's stomach more. Dealing with foes, that he can handle; a stormy sky? He's dodged lightning like his life depended on it back through their plains.

But his feet aren't sure they want to move, when there's enough around them that would mean they'd need to look down to watch their step. Look down, and see who those bodies are, which friends. Which loved ones, which familiars. Is that what the test will be? Cruel, but if that's what it is--

A fist meets the hand that Inigo grabs, but Tidus unravels it, lets the guy take it properly, as he wants. A look taken to him, then up to the skies.

"If it is - we'll fight it," he says with a sure certainty. He wasn't afraid of Sin, even if it was just them; he wouldn't tremble at the sight of it. "We should walk. Show we won't crack."

Show this test, and themselves. They wouldn't be scared off.

"What do you mean, we'll fight it?"

It's not that Inigo doesn't get it. Given the choice, he'd rather fight too, rather than run from such a threat, no matter how overwhelming. Even though he's currently terrified at the idea of Grima perhaps popping up from these dark skies, his heart racing in his chest to a point where he almost feels like he's going to pass out, he'll fight if he has to. Even if it's useless.

But he's not alone here. And that doesn't even mean the bodies all around.

Tidus is here too. It's fine if something happens to Inigo himself, but Tidus.. Inigo is banking on the fact the bodies around them have to be fake, an illusion, but he doesn't want to test how much an illusion could hurt the one living person here with them.

It makes Inigo's face grow paler as he looks right at Tidus - even just at the very thought.

"There's no way the two of us could take on something like that." Not that he knows much about Sin, other than what Tidus has told him. But it sounded just as overwhelming and destructive as Grima, and Inigo knows the two of them have no chance tackling Grima - so Sin has got to be similar, in terms of their (lack of) chances.

"It's an illusion!" Tidus counters, insistence only in getting Inigo to remember that, no matter the fear, the apprehension that runs through them both. He pulls on their joined hands, a squeeze of reassurance. "It can't hurt us! 'Craft a shield from your vulnerabilities'... If this is meant to help us fight off illusions like this, we have to show that it can't hurt us. That we won't be stopped!"

Even if this feels reals, the scenery spreading as far and as real, the sounds and scents just as vivid. Tidus looks at Inigo, into his eyes.

"Remember the meditation. The way we pushed down that presence - that's what we have to do too." And he says it, taking in a breath, as if trying to relax in this oppressive environment. "We can dispel it!"

At least - Tidus hopes that's the way this will work.

Inigo stares at Tidus, slack-jawed.

He knows the other is right, but that doesn't make it easy. Not with these dark skies above them, with all the bodies strewn around. Inigo can hear the familiar sound of the Risen wandering around in the distance, he can see the blood seep into the earth.

How is he supposed to calm down in the middle of all this? Relax? He already has a hard enough time relaxing under normal circumstances, let alone now! His chest feel so tight, and he's trying really hard to keep himself from hyperventilating.

"I.. I'm trying, but I-- I can't. I can't get calm like--"

Before Inigo can finish the statement, he's interrupted. The clouds pull apart in the sky, and a creature larger than life itself seems to descend. A dragon so big and dark that it seems to replace the dark sky, so big that they can't even see all of it. Its many red eyes seem to stare down from the sky directly at the two of them.

Multiple eyes blood-red look down upon them, a form so large that it's a mystery how the sky can fit it. All words are lost to its approach, even Tidus silence to the figure that comes about them now. The howling chorus of death cries ever louder around them, and Tidus knows what this is. Knows who it's for, what they have to try to do. What he has to try and do for Inigo.

"Inigo, you--"

So he starts, snapping his gaze back onto the other guy, all with the intention to keep speaking. But in that hand out, the hand once holding Inigo's, Tidus sees instead his brotherhood - its blade pushed through inside Inigo's gut and out the other side, a flicker of a scene that cuts out all words and makes him yelp, stumbling back amongst the bodies of friends at their feet.

And when he looks again the sword is gone, his hand empty, both of their hands empty. Grima laughs from above, a sound twisted and strangled, a mocking, dire thing...

"Tidus..!"

It's that sound that Tidus makes that sticks in Inigo's ears even moreso than the sound of the dragon laughing above them. He sees Tidus jumping back like that, and it can't be at just one of the bodies, nor at Grima itself - especially when the other was saying they should fight it only a moment ago.

Inigo knows just as well what Tidus must have seen a moment ago, despite not seeing it himself. He must have seen the same sight from back during the mission, the guilt that Inigo knows has been weighing heavy on the other's shoulders. He recalls Tidus's form, so tiny and apologetic and guilty, from the first night after they were back on the train.

Maybe it's what gives Inigo strength in this moment. The knowledge that Tidus needs him here too, needs him to be strong as well, even though he's terrified.

Turn his vulnerabilities into a weapon, Inigo thinks. But how?

He casts a soundless glance up, meeting Grima's gaze - what feels like - directly, before looking back at Tidus.

"I'm so scared, Tidus." But even as he says it, his voice is more steady than a moment ago, even though he's being even more candid.

It's just - maybe this is the first step. Speaking your fears and vulnerabilities aloud to acknowledge them, rather than try to shove them down.

"I'm so terrified of losing more people I love, just like this." The scattered bodies all around them. "And I'm.. I'm so scared of losing you."

Even if it's not always through Grima.

But Grima sure is a convenient symbol of something that took so much from him at once, isn't it?

"All the time."

It was an illusion, it was an illusion. His mind can tell him that, but it doesn't stop the rapid beating of his heart, the possibility, the chance. Though the sword is tucked away inside his arms, and Tidus knows he should stand. But his body delays to the tiny voice of sense in him, the rest of him needing to find that strength in him to stand.

Inigo finds it first, even as the sky and world rumbles with Grima's demonic sneering. Tidus keeps his eyes on him as he speaks, his back risen off from the ground, limbs pushing him some of the way up. The pained expression shifting his features - going from fear, to something closer to grief by the slanting of his brows.

"This isn't your world anymore," he insists. "It's gonna be a new world, a better one. A world that's still yours. A different story, where you didn't have to lose anyone."

There's a strained pull of his mouth, an attempt at a smile too miserable to be truly happy.

"I was scared too - I still am. I don't want to go, but... a world where everyone we loves get to be alive?" He'll take it, always. He'll choose it over and over. They both would, wouldn't they?

"It's your home, it's waiting for you. You'll have a good life - wherever you go."

He shakes his head.

"That new world isn't my world either." Having destroyed his own world, and not belonging in the new one. Inigo has known that it'd be his reality from the moment he accepted going into the past - but if the only alternative was staying in a world like this until he died, without giving everyone else in Ylisse a chance to live, there's no way he'd go for that alternative.

He doesn't want to think about it too hard though. He knows he'll only sink further into despair if he does, and that's the opposite of what he wants to do here.

Instead he reaches out for Tidus's hand, intending on helping the other up. At first he can feel his hand going through Tidus's hand, and it's almost as if he can see it fade, but Inigo steels his heart, because this isn't happening. Tidus isn't fading. It's only with that strength that he manages to actually latch onto the hand during his second attempt, helping the other up.

"I don't-- I don't want to think about that though. Not right now." He nervously licks his lips. His throat feels so dry. "Instead we have to figure out how to be stronger than this."

They're a contradiction to their needs. A contradiction in how they deal with loss. Tidus already knew, but it's reconfirmed now in Inigo's answers, the hand that reaches out for his. Inigo seeing something that he doesn't, though his own thoughts are occupied by the illusion that tries to appear in his own hand - his blade once again, threatening to reappear as his hand gets close to Inigo.

He swallows, ignores the beating of his heart for their hands to come together. Tidus lifts onto his feet unsteadily, a pounding in his ears.

"We are stronger than this." Even if there's trepidation coursing through them, even though everything seems hopeless, heavy. His voice grows louder, shouts as he throws out his other hand."

"We give up everything just to keep getting screwed around! What's an illusion gonna do to us?! I'm tired of illusions!" he spits out, looking back up at the sky straight at Grima, then back to Inigo.

"You're strong -- because no matter what, you always keep going, even when you don't want to. For everyone."

It resonates within Inigo, those words. In a way that makes him unable to deny what the other is saying, because those simple words - even when you don't want to - feel like they hit him like a truck. It's true, isn't it? He wanted to give up so many times. He's been so tired, pushed beyond the point of exhaustion, and yet he did keep on going. Both in the future, and the past, and here on the train. Because it feels like there's no other choice when there are still people who need him out there.

Inigo's hold on Tidus's hand tightens for a moment, desperately clutching onto it before he lets go.

".. you too," he says, slowly, but then more rapidly again when he continues to speak. "You're always.. so angry at injustice. You're always ready to fight everything when things are unfair for you or others. You always bounce back." He thinks of Tidus's form back during the last mission, so wrecked by the illusion that he was unable to do anything but lay there on the ground all curled up, trying to keep himself from having to hurt anyone again. "And you.. you bounce back stronger."

He pauses, leaving them just with the sound of their surroundings. Monsters scrambling in the distance, the wind sweeping through their hair, Grima looming heavy above until he continues.

"But you're right. In all of it. We keep getting screwed over, but we don't deserve this."

There's an indescribable emotion that runs through his body, a feeling. Is it an anger? Is it resolve? To be reminded - even when he speaks about it - of the injustices, how they always have to bounce back. Continue down these roads with no others they can take. Because taking any other would eat away at them more than even facing their fears.

He doesn't feel strong, this isn't blind strength, but he stands with some force in him, facing this torn up world.

"We don't," he finally says, "but we'll do this for others. We'll suffer it to get through. Because we want this to be over. And not even knowing that thing's looming around-"

He tips his chin up at the sky, filled with little else than Grima's form,

"-can stop you. You still fought, always. You'll fight now!"

He's right, of course. Inigo won't just stop picking himself up now. Maybe if he was alone, if it was just his line on the life and no one or nothing else - maybe then he would give up.

But it's not like he doesn't have anything to fight for anymore. If anything, the thing floating above them is a reminder of what he has to fight. If everyone hasn't dealt with Grima yet back home while he's stuck here..

".. right. As long as I'm not alone, I don't have to be afraid of anything." Because then his main fear is already gone, right? What's to fear about Grima, if not just that it'd be the cause of him ending up all alone? This illusions is just a dumb, grotesque way of pointing him right at that truth.

He looks back at Tidus though - purposefully - before he continues.

"But you'll fight too, right?" His tone suggests he already knows Tidus will. "After all, I can't think of anyone at whose side I'd rather fight."

What is there for Tidus to fear? He's anxious, of course, of these illusions; of what the next time they're trapped inside them without choice will bring, how he'll crack. But to be strong for others, to swallow down those fears and to be a strength for Inigo; with Inigo.

Tidus takes out his brotherhood for real, the water moving in the blade it isn't stilled. A rush of anxiety that goes through his body, the pyreflies howling. Even so:

"I'll fight! So, ugly--" he readies the blade, as if preparing for a real fight. "--show us what you're made of!"

Because an illusion couldn't harm them, and with them overcoming their fears, their anxieties, pushing through them, the figures around them begin to fade and blink out from sight. Grima's form above losing sound with its roar, pieces of its body shimmering, starting to lose shape.

But still it comes with jaws wide, as if in one last attempt to weaken their resolve-- but Tidus won't back down, making sure Inigo won't either as he calls out, reminding the other guy he isn't alone-

"Inigo!"

He knows it's a moment of resolve for Tidus too when he takes that sword out like that. There was no way he wasn't thinking of what happened last time, and yet now he dares to draw it in the face of these illusions, even with the risk understood through past experience.

Inigo grips his own sword just as tightly. Jumblie's familiar light jumps out of his chest into the sword, and as he raises that glowing sword, it's almost for the briefest moment like it's a different sword altogether, one Inigo never thought he'd yield, one he's now raising in the face of that dragon head coming closer and closer down towards them..

.. but then everything fades, just a moment before contact. Grima, the bodies, the pyreflies - everything is gone.

The cavern is empty. And there's an odd weight in Inigo's hand. He opens his clutched fist, only to find a crystal laying within it.

He stares at it for the briefest moment, but then finally raises his gaze over at Tidus.

".. I think we did it."

Gee, Inigo, what tipped you off? The fact that the illusion is just gone now?

What do you mean, they don't need to fight it?

But that's apparently so: as the darkness that came with Grima's descent lightens instead; the world not the most clearest or visible, but the pinpricks of light peek in from above, and the pool of water is still, the bubble floating without images in its centre.

Tidus feels a weight in his hand too - one that turns out to be the crystal and not his blade when he opens it up, shimmering off the little light that manages it catch off its edges.

"We did...?" Just like that? Although it wasn't an emotionally easy task, still...! "Alright!"

Tidus clenches a fist back around the stone, grinning stupidly, and he turns to hold out that fist for a bro-fist!

"We did it!"

Inigo still looks a little baffled too by the fact that they just did it like that, that it was all of a sudden over like that, but then he looks aside. And there's just the familiar sight of Tidus grinning, of the other holding out his hand like that, and Inigo has spent enough time around the other to know what it means.

Letting the enthusiasm be contagious, Inigo ends up quickly smiling too, before he reaches out with his hand to tap it against Tidus's to brofist it up over here.

"Definitely we. There's no way I would've made it if you hadn't been there!" Or it would have been a way worse process, at the very least.

He lowers his fist again, but the smile doesn't fade. If anything, his words sound even more sincere.

"Thanks for helping me out back there. You always know what to say at moments like those."

Tidus laughs, a sound like relief but a youthful joy too, surprised and baffled but happy. It's worn in the roundness of his eyes, his grin giddy.

"Ae you joking? I don't wanna know what those things are like alone! Woo- that got dark and spooky!"

Made from the their own memories? Their own fears projected? Sheesh! Tidus sits his fists on his sides, looking around them to really take in how different everything looks from just moments ago.

"I think I wanna take a break after that. How about you? If that's what these trials are... give me five!"

Or twenty!

Twenty sounds great, honestly.

"How about we get a snack?" Hey, they worked hard! Maybe not necessarily physically, since a lot of that just now was fake, but.. using your brain and overexhausting your emotions is also just hard work, okay. Clearly.

And it's just a nice way to spend a break. They don't even have to go back to the train for it, considering the entire snack repository stashed in Tidus's arms band (and Inigo is slowly starting to get there too, really).

"I need some sugar to get my energy levels back up."

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pick their cave, nerd

wow let's go with mind, dweeb

go right for the pain

i know what i want ;)

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