starhuevalley | .1 caliber [Intro]

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.1 caliber [Intro]

[ACTION]

[She steps down from the bus and tugs at the strap around her shoulder tighter - she travels light, but there's something rather long, carefully wrapped, strapped between her bag and back. Squinting lightly at the warm summer sun, she sighs. Mixed feelings, all in one breath. This lady travels light except for the baggage in her mind.

Still, as she treads through the beaten paths towards an x in a map (excellent orientation skills, for one), she looks around carefully with what seems like a half smile in her piercing gaze. Yet, when she finds the place in the map, she keeps walking around, checking the Community center, the city, - greeting a couple of kids playing outside with a smile - walking through the beach... ending up finally at the Saloon around the evening, asking for a cup of tea at the counter.

Where do you meet her? ]

[VIDEO]

[That's exactly where she is when the video feed opens up. She's looking down at the screen, kohl rimmed eyes scrutinizing the device with a somewhat disappointed expression to them. She tsks.]

So unintuitive. How old is this?

[Dexterous fingers reach the screen and blip! goes the feed

Ring ring?]

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[Yeah, he doesn't get that joke. Let's pass on it.]

Biggest thing there is! Zanarkand or Spira, the world turned around blitz!

[She doesn’t really know where that is, but given the whole “timeline” issue she was told when they stepped out of the bus, she wouldn’t be surprised it would be the case.]

You sound very enthusiastic about it.

That's 'cuz I'm the best there is at the game.

Or was. And will be again. Always said if I got a second chance...

[And he's in the best shape of his life right now. Time as a guardian got him super-fit. Kicked drinking. Had some time to think about life.]

[Saw his kid do something great.]

Ain't that what this is about?

[Well then, that sort of explains it.

There's unfounded confidence, of course, but Ana thinks it's probably not the case.

There's a soft crack under their feet as the sand starts dusting the path they took. She looks ahead, a jerk of her chin.] Seems that we have arrived.

You know, every place is familiar when it has water. [Jecht takes a few steps on ahead, eager to feel the same beneath his feet. It reminds him of Spira's beaches. He'd always liked those.]

What're you used to, then? Big cities, or farmland like this? Or somethin' else?

I’ve traveled a lot. [She sinks her booted feet into the sand - it’s going to be a pain to clean, but she’s kind of used to that.] But I’m kind of partial to sand.

In boots? [That's no way to enjoy it. Especially not on what amounts to a holiday here.] Come on. Kick 'em off and come stand in the water. Ain't nothing better to melt the stress away.

[Jecht's heading right into the waves, letting them splash around his ankles. Arms thrown wide, he takes a deep breath, letting the air fill his lungs.]

[She gives him a smile with a tilt of her head. Kind of like a mother chastising a rowdy kid.] Don't worry, I plan on enjoying this.

[She's on a mission, after all, but she had looked at someone's vacation pamphlet not too long ago - Kauai, she recalls - and while not exactly the same, it seemed very pleasant.] How's the water?

[Kinda accurate. It's been years since his soul had no burdens... or at least, the burdens he had now were minor. Worrying about his kid. Hoping for Spira now that everything's done. But nothing about his career, or being stuck in a strange world. Nothing about being a monster.]

[He hadn't felt this young and this free in ages.]

[Jecht turns back to her, looking absolutely at home here.] I'd say it's great, but I always think it's great. Might as well ask a fish, huh?

[She tilts her head at that. This isn't just being overly rambunctious, there's something else to it. Probably connected to the "sob story". ] Wouldn't a fish always reply the same thing, though?

[She takes a look at the map.] There is a house on the docks. Maybe you could ask the price for it.

Yeah, that's my point. I'd always say it's great.

[She said she was gonna enjoy it, so Jecht watches her, waiting to see if she'd put up.]

Probably ought to see what the place I got already looks like, huh? Besides, no way is this too far away to travel if I gotta.

[watches back.

and flicks a bit of water at him with the tip of her boot - the leather is too well worn for her to be worried about its condition - before jerking her head back.] Best if we go check it out, then?

[Water's like air to Jecht (pretty literally, honestly), so as the drops spatter off his skin he just laughs.] I get it. You're gonna be a tough nut to crack on this 'enjoyin' yourself' business, huh.

[That tells him a bit, honestly. Wherever she'd been, it hadn't been a place where just seeing this stuff was something special and precious. Maybe more like a place that left her shut up and shut in. Ha, he wishes Auron were here. Bet the two of them would get along great. As if anyone could tell!]

[She's welcome to guess at why he just can't stop grinning as he strolls back out of the waves, heedless of the water spilling out of his clothing.] Yeah, let's find out where home sweet home is for us.

[The corner of her lips curls.] Not really, I just like to think there's a time for everything.

[And while laying down on the sand to bask in the warm summer sun or taking a dive sounds wonderful, she's still in recon mode. That this idyllic setting would just display itself in front of her out of the blue with a promise of peace and quiet after winning a gruesome war and years of managing a military task force, it doesn't really relax her - it makes her suspicious.

Ana waits for him to get out of the water, not bothered if he manages to sprinkle any onto her - she's dealt with worse.] You have a map, right?

[Hey, this setting popped up after a decade or so of roaming around as a monster without parallel, slowly murdering an entire world. Sometimes you just gotta roll with what life does.]

Oh yeah, probably same as you. [Jecht reaches for the tablet he'd shoved into the back of his shorts and forgotten about. Hey, Ana, mention that it isn't waterproof to him at some point?]

Oh hey, I'm near a river on this thing. All right!

[Sorry Jecht, Ana is from the future. She's not used to tablets not being waterproof. You're on your own, buddy.]

You can't stay away from the water even if you tried, it seems. [A look to compare with her own map and, huh, the house she was given is also along that river as well.] I guess they have the area free.

Hey, this is supposed to be a happy place, right? And double happy since I got a good neighbor.

[Jecht crosses his other arm over his chest, curling up his fingers. Fistbump, Ana!]

[A snort, and Ana fistbumps back casually, a smile more present in her eyes than her mouth. While the good mood is contagious, she can’t help but wonder one thing:] You’re not worried at all that this is some sort of trap?

[Yeah, speaking of good moods, thanks for hitting his. His mouth never stops smiling, but his eyes... they're two other worlds away in that moment.]

Where I was... what I was... anything that can get me here from there doesn't need to do all this. Why set a trap for something you got in the palm of your hand?

[She gives him an apologetic smile. I suppose. [Even if she... witnessed something really elaborate to kill just the one person not too long ago.

A sigh. That Jecht seems to come from a completely different place, both in terms of space and in the place in his life, it didn’t add up.

Why would a person with nothing to lose and another whose life goal was to protect what she hasn’t be taken to the same place?]

I guess there’s nothing else to do but start digging, hm?

[And then Jecht laughs, and sticks out an elbow to give her a playful nudge that's a little rough, like he is. But hey. She looks like she can take it.]

Naw. Nothing else to do but start living.

[She can and she does, even if she pulls one shoulder tighter to her neck in a half-shrug. Fair is fair, and this guy seems like he really needs the break.]

And what are you thinking of doing, then, in this new life?

I never did get to pull off my triumphant return to the sphere. 'Course the place needs a blitzball stadium in the first place for me to go back to it, so that might be something right there.

I got something to prove.

[It probably isn't what she thinks...]

Not only you need a stadium, you need people in the stadium. [Not that she thinks that Jecht will have much trouble with that.]

Which is...? [Also a light tone in this question. He has been relatively discrete about his background, so she feels like asking, but not prying.]

There's someone chasing after me.

I can't let him catch up.

[And yet he's so happy about this.]

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