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?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nope. All we needed for what we were going to do was Braska's own abilities... and me and Auron to see him there safely.

...Wonder if they have blitzball here. [Yes, that segue was abrupt and very deliberate. This is a time to recover, a new chance, so let's put the trip that killed his friends and turned him into a monster in the past.]

[Ana picks up on that quick enough, even if she files the rest of the information for, perhaps, later. She tilts her head.] Is that a sport? I don’t think I know it.

[Jecht ain't a subtle man.]

Don't know it?

Huh.

[Well, that's weird.]

Maybe they call it something different where you came from. Big sphere of water, teams try to get the ball into the other goal?

[She gives him a shake of her head, even if she's smiling.] Getting the ball in the goal is common in a lot of sports, but I don't think I've heard of one with a big sphere of water before.

So what do they use, a cube? That has to be weird.

[The idea that water is not involved has yet to occur to him. Blitz is love, blitz is life.]

Hm... [She takes a while to think.] There's water polo, where the water is confined in a pool.

Oh, okay. Guess if you don't have the tech to lift it into the air, a big ol' pool would do the job.

[Jecht is imagining one that's dozens of feet deep and wide, of course.]

Not that I know of. [Or not that overwatch has shown, yet.] So it's like... Aerial water polo?

Hell if I know what water polo is. Sounds pretty lame. 'Polo', feh. [He can sound so dismissive and so cheerful at the same time, it honestly takes some talent.] Nothing like blitz!

[Ana chuckles, though she shakes her head lightly.] I suppose, especially if you’re German.

So this sport, it’s a big thing where you come from?

[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!

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