oftheazureskies | I Am Thou

I Am Thou

It had been some time since Yua's adventure into the First, now with the land trying to find a way to rebuild after the return of the night sky. Perhaps it was because of it, she has a new appreciation of the beauty of the stars, the color of the skies when the light vanishes for the time. And Yua has been wandering more around Eorzea during the night taking in the sights.

It's when she is around Mor Dhona that during one of her trips, there is something that catches her eye: a very large tentacled creature slithering around like a serpent with a gaping jaw.

"That's odd, I haven't heard of a Hunt Mark like that one-" She stops in mid sentence because the voidsent doesn't even bother to take notice of her but rather a figure lying on the ground. She can't tell who it is from where she is standing but that does not mean the viera woman will simply stand there. Unhooking her chakrams from her belt, she dashes forward and throws them at the monster's eyes.

"Hey Ugly! Over here!"

Yua couldn't think of a snappier comeback, there's more important things like making sure that guy who is lying there doesn't get hurt.

"Who on earth would even be out here around something like this?"

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"Ah, the Prima Vista." You can hear the smile in Emet's voice as he pulls an outfit out of the wardrobe. "One of the best troupes since the Sundering, believe it or not. Always putting on interesting plays and never missed a chance to perform at my birthday. I still say "I Want To Be Your Canary" was one of their best plays."

Yua must have hit a good note at mentioning the performing troupe. It's been ages since she's seen Ramza and his family and what she remembers, he is less of a little shit after their adventure.

"I never saw that one. I did manage to see "The Zodiac Brave Story" while in Kugane, where they stay now. They have quite the following there and I can see why; it was absolutely amazing."

"They're in Kugane now? I'll have to make a trip to see them, then." He misses their work, if he's honest. It was very good for mortal creations.

"They kind of had to. According to them, Varis started going overboard with censorship and the founder refused to go along with it. So they went to Kugane and the city refused to turn them in." Spoken with a grin.

"But the one you mentioned..."I Want To Be Your Canary"? What's that one about?"

Emet sighs. "Out of all my descendants, I had so hoped for any of them but Varis to take the throne. Yes, he loves his country but he's so dull, and his son is insane." He'd warned his son about marrying that woman, but had he listened? Of course not.

"It's a tragedy, about the young princess Cornelia and her ill-fated romance with a peasant Marcus. Cornelia is meant to marry a foreign prince to stop a war, neither Marcus nor Cornelia are having it, and it ends with Cornelia dead by her father's misaimed sword and Marcus dead by his own hand. Or in prison, the ending can vary."

"Mmmm, Zenos is...something." Yua can't help but side eye, unable to get the idea of someone being so damn turned on by fighting. So he was fight-sexual or something?

But then, Yua hears the tragic tale of the two lovers. At first, her thoughts are of sadness because indeed that is a horrible way to go. "And so the only way for the two to be together again is in death?"

It reminds her of Romeo and Juliet almost...except they took their own lives and not by someone else.

"That's it exactly." They're not talking about his great-grandson. He hates Zenos. "I always loved it."

No complaints here.

"If you would have asked me while I was still a teenager, I would have not gotten the message behind the story and only think of what it said at face value. To only see the tragedy and not know that there are some things that do transcend boundaries."

"...how old are you?" He swore she was fairly young.

Compared to him, she is.

"Well, I'm 26 years old now. Still young to some but considered an adult." Yua has to look back at when she started this crazy trip through worlds; started at 18 when she was heading back to Tokyo from Inaba so that would be almost ten years ago.

"Twenty-six?!" What. Emet-Selch just gives Yua a baffled look. "Truly?"

Yua just looks puzzled herself. "Well yeah. 18 years old when I left Inaba and spent two years afterwards in different places and came to Eorzea when I was around 20 and haven't left. And since then, it's been six years so that makes me 26."

Now that she thinks about it, a viera did tell her back in Fanow that they age differently than most since she admitted to remembering the Warriors of Light and that was over a hundred years ago.

"Wait, do I look younger?"

"You simply don't feel nearly thirty," Emet explains. "It's hard to explain, but even Lahabrea called you an "annoying teenaged hero"."

Dare she try to explain what Featherman is? Maybe later.

"Is this where I'm supposed to say 'takes one to know one' when it comes to him? Because he gave me that feeling."

"He was also half-mad," Emet points out. "So no, it's not."

She's about to retort with her own admission of being as messed up but Yua cannot find the words. Or rather, her mind is telling her to hold back, rationalizing that now is not the time to admit her experiences in Liminal and their impact.

Truthful she might be but even Yua can figure out on occasion when not to speak her mind. This seems to be one of them.

"Technically he wouldn't be wrong...it was just when we faced off, I was an adult. I did get into some big fights back on Earth, while in Inaba." She instead replies.

"Would that have anything to do with those...whatever you summoned?"

She nods. "My persona are my original power. But I get the feeling I'm going to need to explain everything during my stay in Inaba in order to paint a better picture for you."

And for this, they cannot stand. It's one of those as she ushers him to the normal couch in the room.

"This will take some time but it'll be easier for you to understand hopefully."

And Yua begins from her dream with Igor in the Velvet Room and to her early days in the small mountain town she had called home for a year. The murders and kidnappings that happened, the friends she made, the TV World and how personas work, the awakenings of her friends and the battles they all faced together. She spares no lost detail, even explaining how the final battle between her and Izanami went and the final moments she saw of her friends waving farewell to her on the train ride home. Needless to say, it does take awhile for her to tell the story but she believes telling everything is important to understand.

During all of this, completely unknown to Emet (but possibly not to Yua and her stupid good hearing), Rhel has slipped in and is setting out lunch in the kitchen.

"Did you mention the boy in the bear suit originally not being a boy at all, but a talking bear suit?" she calls, giving Emet the briefest of heart attacks (though he hides it well).

Yua does hear her and it's just something that happens on a normal day so she isn't bothered by it.

"I did! And the fact that I quite possibly scared him quiet when I gave him the Birds and Bees talk."

"To be entirely fair to the poor boy, you did threaten castration. Loudly, from what I remember."

"Because he kept on yelling about scoring without context. Besides, it was a good scare tactic at the time."

"I'm still not certain I understand what 'scoring' has to do with sex," Rhel mutters, stepping out of the kitchen with a tray for Yua. Four of her mammets follow after with a tray for Emet. "Your home world is very weird, Yua, but you did know how use the damn tomestone gadgets Rowena made..."

"It's all in the phrasing. Slang back on Earth can be crazy at times." She sorry but also, it's pretty hilarious to see reactions for the first time.

"I'm still curious how the hell Rowena managed to make smartphones of all things; definitely helpful sometimes but I have to wonder if she's from another universe too."

"I've checked. She's not even possessed by anything."

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