sixthiterationlogs | Fighting Fate

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Fighting Fate

WHO: Oerba Yun Fang
WHERE: Fountain, then wandering
WHEN: June 24, early morning then later in the day
OPEN TO: Jax, then anyone
WARNINGS: Mild violence, partial nudity (okay almost complete nudity), probably mentions of a crappy past? Look this could go a lot of ways

( Fountain, for Jax )

It all changes in an instant - all the pain, all the agony, all the determination to get through the pink hell and confront the being that sentenced them and everyone around them to a horrible death, all of it is gone. Her family around her, their final goal in mind, spear in hand, the sense that this war would at least be finished even if everything wasn't happily resolved-

And then nothing but water, surrounding her, choking off her breath and causing her to react on instinct, kicking her body into a sharp line and surging up before she can swallow any of it. With no idea how such a change had come about, the only thing she could do was get out of this situation, despite the fabric clinging to her (where are her clothes?!) and the weight on her feet and back-

It's a small, flooded pit she's somehow in, and Fang surges out of the water gasping for air and soaked through, not immediately noticing any of the surroundings other than not covered in enemies and grabbing for the stone rim of the fountain, forcing herself to come into focus again because she knows all too well that dropping that wariness will spell death for her and everyone around her.

( Behind House 41 then Wandering, Open )

After leaving behind that idiot, Fang runs west and ducks behind what appears to be an unused house to stop and take stock of the situation. Everything is completely turned around from what she was mentally prepared for, and she needs to stop and collect herself before she does anything she'll regret. Again. First thing is to rid herself of the sopping wet clothing - not the most ridiculous thing she's ever seen, but a pain to deal with right now when there's other things she has to be focusing on, so off it goes. The red scrubs hit the back stoop of the house with wet smacks, leaving Fang standing there just in her underwear and the boots, which are heavy and cumbersome but are all she has. Not caring about her lack of undress, she crouches next to the stoop to rip open the bag (she does find the zipper) and finds it full of things that could possibly be useful, but most of it not immediately what she needs. The long johns get used as a towel and stuffed back in, followed by the scrubs - what she'll do with them, she has no idea, but maybe they'll be worth carrying around - but poke around as she might, she can't find any weapons, not even a dinky little dagger.

So, next step: weapon. If the best she can do is a tree branch, then that's what she's getting, and it's easy enough to wrench a low-lying one off a nearby tree and quickly snap off the little branchlets growing along it. It's not her spear, but it'll do in a pinch.

Before she sets out, she does actually pull off the boots and wet socks, stuffing the socks into the bag with the rest of the mess someone decided to drop on her and carrying the boots by the laces. With how heavy they are, they'll probably make a decent projectile weapon if she needs to use them as such, and her feet are tough enough to handle going barefoot on relatively even ground like this. Once she's finally ready, Fang hikes the back up on her left shoulder, makes sure of the grip of her branch with her right, and begins to circle the buildings she can see in counter-clockwise movement so she can try and figure out exactly what the hell is going on.

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Jax isn't a welcome person. He hardly ever manages to be by the fountain anyway, other than by sheer accident, and it's because he'd been cutting through to find a place to smoke one of his last cigars that he happens to be there when someone breaks free of the water and comes into this hellhole. Great. Now he has to explain shit.

At least she's hot. This place doesn't have a shortage of good-looking women but this one is pretty extraordinary in that department and he has a cocksure grin on his face when he strides over to the fountain and offers her a hand.

"Sure do like it when the powers that be think of the rest of us when picking someone to show up here."

That grin isn't even noticed because Fang's still got water streaming from her mane of hair and into her eyes, but that voice is definitely heard and that hand is felt when it grabs hers. Her own locks on instinctively, but unfortunately for Jax all the clues add up so rapidly to indicate that something is very wrong that she immediately begins to react on instinct. Not that she didn't already know that, because one thing she hadn't seen in the Cradle was water, but she knows the sound and feel of her newfound family and this man isn't any of them.

So she reacts. Her feet kick against the side of the fountain and she yanks on his arm to give herself more leverage, a much stronger force than he was probably expecting, and combines the two to drive herself out of the water with a great splash going everywhere. Spinning in the air above Jax, she lands in a crouch on the ground behind him, more awkwardly than she's used to thanks to the unfamiliar (and strangely restrictive) clothes, heavy boots, pack, and water pouring off of everything. She hurriedly shoves the wet hair out of her face with one hand, a light flashing in her eyes that warns she is very not happy right now, and surges forward to try to smash the unfamiliar man against the fountain with an arm across his chest. "Where are they?"

She moves so quickly that Jax doesn't really have time to react and her arm is against his chest to hold him down. He shoves as best he can and there's a wall that comes up, some kind of barrier between the two of them.

Oh. Where was this shit the last time a woman got in his face?

"Shit! You hurt? I did not mean to do this magic shit and I didn't mean to send you wailing on me either. Jesus Christ, what is with the women in this place lately?"

It feels like there's suddenly something under her arm, a physical creation that rapidly expands, shoving her back a couple of feet mere moments after she gets her forearm on his chest. She keeps her feet, though she's bent forward in a crouch to maintain her balance, not surprised by the sudden sensation - she's used it, or something similar to it, quite a lot herself.

"You branded? You close?" Defensive capabilities like that are a l'Cie power, or occasionally manufactured within technology. Fang definitely prefers having it under her own control and not depending on someone else's benevolence. The light in her eyes as she straightens up to full height once again is still dangerous, wary, and very guarded, but it's also not immediately lashing out like she had just a moment ago. "Where's the rest of them?"

"Branded? I got tattoos, yeah," Jax says, showing her his forearm where he's got a couple memorial tattoos that are okay to look at for mixed company. Those are his best ones, anyway, and if she wants to look at art he's got it in spades.

"Don't know what the fuck the force shield is, though," Jax says. He pushes at it and it doesn't seem to relent and then he just relaxes and it drops. Huh.

"Look - I'm Jax. You clearly just got here from somewhere...where are you from?"

That statement is met with an eye roll from Fang, who crosses her arms over her chest in what is obviously a habitual action and is now completely ignoring the water still streaming from her clothes and hair. It's not nearly the most uncomfortable she's ever been. "Not that - branded." The way she says the word confers a lot more weight to the concept than most people would think of it. The long tails of her own tattoo on her left shoulder are easily visible below the sleeve of the scrubs, but she yanks up the right enough to show what appears to be an intricate white tattoo that seems to be catching the sunlight off the fountain's water. Compared to the mark, the scars on that area are negligible and easy to overlook. "You can make a shield like that, you've got some sort of power. And if you don't know how to use it-" which he obviously doesn't "-you must've just got it recently. If you're lucky, you won't be close."

She's fought enough monsters today, and only wants one more for it to all be over. Even without her spear, she'd get it done, to save them all.

"I'm from Oerba, on Gran Pulse." There's zero hesitation in saying that name. Fang had never truly hidden who she was and where she came from after waking up on Cocoon; it was entirely because people just had no idea that she even could be a Pulse l'Cie. She'd never even covered up her brand, but it was so malformed at this point that it was only vaguely in the same shape as a normal brand. "Last I knew we had about thirteen minutes to save a few million people from bein' squashed like insects and I need to get back to that as fast as I can."

"I don't know about any place named Oerba or Gran Pulse," Jax says. "And I don't have a brand like that. I just have my tattoos, not any tribal shit." He pauses for a moment and then gestures at her work, which is unlike any ink he's ever seen before.

"Not that what you're sporting is shit. It's well done. Might have to see your guy if I ever get out of this place."

Of course, that means finding out where the fuck Gran Pulse is.

Vanille was honestly not expecting to find anyone she knows here. They could easily find their way through the fountain like she did, but this isn't the first time she's found herself somewhere alone. She's managing as well as she can, making friends and connections to help and protect her in their own way, just the same as she did on Cocoon. Of course, she misses her family, all of them and Fang most of all, but she's hardly letting the situation beat her.

It's on one of the more rare times that she only has the new puppy and the reptilian dog with her that she runs into someone much more familiar. Bhakti the Second is much friendlier than any of her other animals, almost more so than Vanille herself, bolting off in a different direction from the one Vanille and the fluffy puppy are going in. Vanille huffs, hurrying forward to scoop up the puppy before turning to find the reptile dog.

"Bhakti!" she calls, breaking into a trot as she finally spots the animal. "Don't wander off so--"

Her eyes land on the person Bhakti has chosen to head towards and she feels herself almost sway on the spot. This looks like the one person she would want to see, the one person she was sure she would never see here. Hope springs inside her, painful and strong, and she takes a few more steps forward, cautiously, as though bracing herself for disappointment.

"Fang?"

This place is obviously not something she'd see on Cocoon. It's too natural, too dirty - even the rougher parts of Cocoon are still cleaner and sleeker than this. The clothing she'd been wearing when she emerged might have been closer to something she could find on Cocoon, but the setting was much closer to home. Dirt on the ground and the wind in the air, all of it felt real. Everything on Cocoon had been manufactured for the residents, something that had driven her crazy from the moment she'd woken up there (along with the lack of any flavoring in their food), and this simply didn't read the same.

On the other hand, a lot of things didn't make a whole lot of sense to her, and until she had some sort of idea what was going on, it wasn't good to let herself be seen. There was, however, a glaringly obvious hole in that plan, one she knew but could do nothing about: animals could still smell her. It was something she'd had to learn to work around when she'd been learning to hunt, and presumably would have to do so here as well, wherever "here" was. But when the little thing comes trotting over to her, around the corner she'd concealed herself behind to observe, she gives it a half-hearted glare and poked at it with the bottom of her tree branch. "Go on, you, get." She's fairly sure this thing can't kill her (not without a pack of friends, anyway), but she doesn't need it giving away her position.

That is, until she sees the person following it. "Vanille!" Fang has no hesitation in throwing the boots and the pack to the side, rushing forward to envelop the other girl in an almost desperate embrace. Sure, she'd seen her just a couple hours before, but with all of this going on she's insanely relieved to see her brighter half. (She's also still holding that tree branch, but Vanille is used to that.) "Maker above, don't ever leave me behind again, okay?"

Bhakti seems less interested in leaving than Fang would likely want. He watches her with interest for a while. At least until she finally spots Vanille. Her reaction is enough for Vanille, though. The redhead doesn't move from her spot, letting Fang come to her, but the relief is easy enough to see in her eyes. Wrapping one arm around Fang, Vanille holds on tightly, careful to keep the puppy from getting squished. It protests the sudden confinement, but she hangs on anyway, letting Fang's presence be a balm to her as usual.

"I didn't mean to," she says softly, barely holding herself together as all of the emotion she's been bottling up finally threatens to spill forth. "I hoped..." Her voice trails off as she fights the tears. She had honestly hoped that Fang and the others would complete what they set out to do without her, even while she had also desperately wished for Fang to come find her. Now that they've been reunited again, guilt wars with relief.

"I've been here for a month," she says instead, letting the length of time speak more for her own state of mind than anything else could.

Fang discovers when she moves to step back far enough to see Vanille that the crocdog has followed her as she raced to her sister, meaning she nearly treads on him instead, making her stagger a bit and him give a rough yip and scurry out of the way. It's easy for her to regain her balance, especially since she's still holding on to Vanille, but the very relieved reunion is broken briefly by her glancing down at the little reptile trying very obviously to stick next to Vanille's ankles. "You get to wait your turn, it's time for the two of us to talk." At least he doesn't seem aggressive - more like severely needy.

Well, worry about that later. Fang looks back to Vanille, studying her carefully as the younger girl slowly starts to break. It is, heartbreakingly, an all-too familiar scene for Fang, and she starts to calm down from her ever-present watch just a little. "I know - we stick together, through anything, right?" It's an old idea for the two of them, and though they've recently grown their little family group by quite a lot, Fang's primary focus - even above their Focus - will always be keeping Vanille safe and by her side. "Did we turn crystal somehow? And you woke before me? Last I knew we were walkin' through that pink hell with everyone and then-"

Water.

Poor Bhakti is a little too concerned with Vanille still. He's very loyal and friendly, but obviously still attached to her more than anything else. That can be good. It might also prove to be inconvenient. She'll have to keep an eye on him and see if he attaches to Fang just as well.

But that is a concern for later. For now, she sniffs just a little bit, letting her arms fall back to holding her puppy rather than wrapped around Fang. She nods a moment later, all the agreement necessary. They always do stick together. Somehow no matter what, Fang always finds her.

One hand lifts to wipe at her eyes a bit and she shakes her head. "No. I don't think so. That's all I remember, too. I don't know how we got here. I don't think anyone does. But Fang..." She sniffs again and manages a watery smile. Cheerful to the last. "I'm glad you're here."

What happens will be what always happens when Vanille wants a new pet: Fang will evaluate that animal as a potential work or food source, kind of shake her head at the whole matter, and then give in and take care of whatever it was if not quite to the same amount Vanille does, still a pretty good bit. A lot of animals on Gran Pulse weren't meant to be tamed, however, and one incident too many had lead to Fang suggesting that Vanille "adopt" one of the little robots that helped out around the community, since it had an AI that functioned on a high enough level to be receptive to a human. All in all it had worked out. Hopefully this little critter would, too, because Fang could already tell there would be no separating the thing from Vanille, and probably no separating Vanille from it. And of course there's a dog as well. Why wouldn't there be a dog.

"Couldn't leave you again, now could I. Wouldn't be much of a family if I had." Even if she hadn't realized she had, knowing Vanille had been alone for so long still hits her where it hurts. And with that reminder of how much time has passed, Fang takes a further step back, letting the branch drop and reaching down to grab the crocdog as he once again tried to dart between their feet, seeking assurance. With a firm nod, she focuses on Vanille once again, brooking no arguments here. "Let's see that brand. Now." Her own is very obviously on display, since she's still wearing next to no clothing and not caring at all.

Vanille could say that the dog wasn't planned, but to be honest none of the animals she has were really planned. The four purple ones might have been more so than any of the others. She had at least worked to earn their trust. The reptilian dog had found her and refused to leave her alone and the puppy had just turned up one day. She has a herd of animals all her own.

On the other hand, she could argue that she was the one who had left Fang alone this time, being the first one to have arrived here, but the words die on her tongue and instead she just shakes her head. For a moment, she leans over to give the reptilian dog a pat on its head to reassure it before she starts working the waistband of her pants down. She doesn't have much modesty, either, and Fang has always been family enough to ignore that. Besides, she'd expected the question about her brand right away. It always comes second, if not first thing.

"It hasn't changed since I got here. It's like it's been frozen."

Except it looks exactly as it should, which is all the more puzzling, but at least she isn't as worried about it reaching the last little bit to turn her Cie'th.

Animals were rarely planned with her. It was just something that happened with Vanille, something they'd learned to live with. And coping and adapting they were used it. They could do it again - at least, at long as the brand wasn't getting any worse.

Crocdog wrapped in one arm (and seemingly content to stay there), Fang waits while Vanille pulls down the pants, ready for... just about anything. But even still, she frowns when she sees the brand, still in that last stage that it had been in going into Eden and the Cradle, when it had progressed so rapidly before that. "You've been here a month and you haven't tipped over the line?" That's... never happened, at least not in her experience, or even the stories she's familiar with. Usually the final stages go much faster than the beginning, as the l'Cie begins to worry and panic about the approaching end. This cycle through, Vanille's brand had begun slowly, but after the Purge and all of that mess, it had gotten faster, more in time with the rest of their new little family, and they'd all been right on the cusp of the end.

Looking back up to meet Vanille's gaze, Fang is obviously wary - but her sister will also be able to see a guarded hope in her eyes. "You think it's been turned off?"

Whether it's hope or sheer desperation and determination or something else entirely keeping her brand from tipping over into that final transformation, she doesn't know. Whatever it is, she just knows that she's still here and her brand is exactly where she last saw it on Cocoon. Someone or something has it stopped for whatever reason.

She shakes her head at Fang's question, answering as best she can. Nothing has changed, oddly enough. It's a relief, but also it makes her worry about the future. Will it ever become active again, like it was? And if it does, will it eventually jump through the time it's already missed? Will she suddenly just go Cie'th without warning?

Those are questions she doesn't want to address, but may not have a choice in.

For now, though, she pushes all of that out of her mind, locking them away like she usually does so she can focus on the here and now.

"Maybe?" she agrees cautiously. "It should have progressed a lot faster by now. But it hasn't... so maybe coming here wasn't the worst thing for it."

The sight of someone wearing basically nothing does rather catch Picard by surprise. True, he's well aware that not ever culture has the same sort of nudity taboos, much less the same taboos in general. But it's still not a sight that he can say is common in the village, much less one he actually expected. On the other hand, he'd make for a very poor diplomat if he weren't at least capable of rolling with whatever situation might present itself.

If that means holding a conversation with someone who's stripped down to their underwear, so be it.

"I apologize if I'm interrupting," he begins, once he's drawn close enough to be heard, "but was there something you were looking for?"

The tone of his voice makes it clear enough that he's asking out of a desire to be helpful, rather than anything else.

Edited 2018-07-04 23:40 (UTC)

If it helps, Fang isn't acting in any sort of way to indicate that this is... well, it's obviously deliberate, but it's not meant in any way to draw attention to her body. The fact that it's on display is inevitable, but she's not trying to seduce anyone, nor is she acting ashamed. It's easy to tell that she'd act the same way she is now even if she was fully clothed.

And the way she acts is suspicious. She's come from so much uncertainty and pain, and being so new means she hasn't lost that edge. (Possibly gained some, since she has absolutely no idea what's going on.) Her shoulders tense and she pauses before turning; the man facing her now looks friendly enough, but she's been betrayed by people she trusted very recently and isn't about to just accept that this man isn't about to try and stab her, shoot her, or kill her in some other way. "A way out, close as I can find it."

It does help, actually. Mostly by virtue of giving him leeway to assume there's a different set of cultural norms in play here than the ones that he's most accustomed to. But that's at least a start, and one that lets him focus a little more on the way she's acting.

Better still, perhaps, is the fact that it doesn't look like he has any weapons on him. Which isn't a guarantee of a lack of violent intent, but does at least back up the theory that he's as friendly as he looks.

"So far, no one's found one. But that doesn't mean that there isn't one."

"Have you just got here?"

This from a feminine voice behind Fang and to her right; when she turns around, she'll see a petite blonde woman in tailored trousers, a silk blouse and faux leather flats. Stella's mildly caught off guard to see a woman walking around in nothing more than her underwear (and maybe slightly distracted, because she's very pretty), but what catches her attention more is the branch, clearly trimmed down for use as a weapon. It makes her wary, the automatic wariness of an unarmed police officer trained to be cautious of armed individuals. She carries the spear — Stella's just going to think of it that way, because it looks like it would make a good one — not necessarily as if she's intending to use it, but as if she could, under the right circumstances.

Stella keeps her hands visible and doesn't move into the other woman's personal space, her posture relaxed and nonthreatening — but she's also not afraid. Cautious, but not fearful. Alert without tension. She doesn't normally play welcoming committee around here, but she's done this enough times to know what she's about.

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Fighting Fate

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jax used his red scrubs power for the first time ever wow

holy SHIT cool!

yup yup

The power was inside of you all along, Jax!

Re: The power was inside of you all along, Jax!

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