Video; A Diary, of Sorts [Open, dated Aug. 26]

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja sighs. The camera is positioned on a table across from him, the humble accommodations of his apartment at the Curti Center visible, an expression of melancholy on his face as, idly, he strokes a blonde-furred cat. "Is it working, yet?"

Mojito's voice pipes up from behind the camera. "Yeah, boss. Go ahead."

The genome sits back in his chair, staring off into space for a moment. "It is... August the twenty-sixth, and my name is Kuja... Tribal. Some of you have met me. It's been suggested to me that venting my thoughts may be beneficial, so here I am. I don't know what to think of this. Things that were revealed to us at the banquet with the Empress have been weighing on my mind. I don't know what I'm supposed to do; I've only barely begun to acclimate to this world, and already it seems someone is threatening to pull it out from under me." His expression twists in a snarl, and one hand gestures wildly to the air. "It's not fair! I thought, perhaps, I'd stumbled across some luck when they told me I wasn't dying anymore and now the godsdamned world's about to-"

The video cuts. He's sitting again, calm. "At any rate. Positive things. I have located a place of employment with work I expect I will, at least, enjoy. I shall be planning for a move to Sparks Golsaucia in the near future, but of course I will need a reserve of Gil built up before I attempt such. My magic is coming along nicely, as well; faster than I might have expected. I've yet to manage a Fira, but the elements are returning to me, at least. White magic is enjoying similar progress, though I haven't put in nearly as much practice there."

He crosses his arms, leaning in to stare at the camera directly. "I have questions, as well, questions not easily answered by a brochure. I've received a message, recently, that something of mine has been uncovered in the Dream Width. Apparently I'm to go and retrieve it. What I want to know is... what should I expect, there? Should I be hiring people to come with me?" A pause, while he considers something. "The Dream Width contains memories of the people that have traveled there. If there are things I would rather keep private, should I attempt a retrieval alone? Apparently they don't know what the item is, but it's quite large..."

"That all you wanted to say, Boss?"

Kuja taps his finger on the table. "No, I've just thought of something else. Someone in the Empire was selling... these." He holds up a little doll, in his own likeness. Given that it's a plush toy intended for children, the features are almost sickeningly cute. "This world is so similar to the one I came from. It could be that people have viewed memories from Gaia, or perhaps that the stories themselves have passed to Vaikuntha, somehow, but if it isn't that, and someone from Gaia is behind this... I need to know. I fear I'm losing my mind, in this place; if someone, anyone, knows anybody with these names, I-" He sighs. "I doubt very much they'd want to speak with me, but just to know..." He trails off, searching for words for a moment. "Just to know that something of Gaia exists and I'm not merely a madman, having dreamt it all."

The video ends. Attached is a list of names.

Comments

[zanarkandian]

Maybe. I knew a Bahamut, where I come from. He was kind of the leader of the eidolons, but there we called them aeons. The whole thing feels kinda familiar, but not.

[acapriciousreaper]

I, too, knew a Bahamut. Not the most powerful eidolon, but certainly a formidable one. I doubt it's the same one; we did not exactly part on polite terms.

[zanarkandian]

Heh. They can be pretty tough nuts to crack.

I just hope we can crack this nut before the apocalypse. Not that summoners losing their minds and wanting to wreck everything is anything new.

[acapriciousreaper]

Out of morbid curiosity, what do you mean by that?

[zanarkandian]

It's just that the story sounds like it might be like what happened to the place I came from. A thousand years of death, all kicked off because a summoner couldn't let go of his grief. Don't want to jump to any hasty conclusions, but...

Long story cut very short, there was once a summoner called Yu Yevon. He lost a war, saw his city destroyed, and compelled all his surviving summoners to become summoning statues dedicated to summoning a dream version of his lost city. I'm from there, actually. But that's an even longer story.

Anyway, to protect his new dream city, he conjured this horrible floating monster called Sin and programmed it to destroy any settlement that got too big. He didn't want people getting hi-tech enough to find his dream city.

[acapriciousreaper]

Sin? That's a bit on the nose, isn't it?
How absurd. I hope it was at least taken care of quickly before the stupid thing could cause too much damage.

[zanarkandian]

Heh. It was all part of the illusion. Yevon's daughter built up a religion around the thing, telling people they could get rid of Sin if they just atoned for their crimes and sacrificed enough summoners.

[Might be a little bitter about that. Might be why he was initially very suspicious of the summoners' guild.]

The cycle lasted a thousand years, but we finally beat it for good. Unfortunately, we've got less than a year to beat this thing before total annihilation. But the other eidolons might have the answers, I think.

[acapriciousreaper]

What utter rubbish. 'Atone for your crimes'? I've never met a monster that didn't die upon being atomized. Finding the location of the summoning, I expect, will be the hardest part. After that it's only a matter of how much force we can bring to bear.
And if the summoning completes... well. We have a veritable army and I've seen bigger threats than some overgrown lizard laid to waste by a party of less than ten. The right people in the right place can make all the difference.

[zanarkandian]

We'll work to make it happen. I just...hmm. I wonder if there's something inside that cloud. It'd be the perfect place to hide if you could set up base there without losing your mind.

[acapriciousreaper]

I'd bet money on it. It is, after all, what I'd do, in a similar position.

[zanarkandian]

You've thought about how you'd...

Um. Okay. Maybe it's best I don't know.

[acapriciousreaper]

What? Oh, no, nothing like that, I meant more that I asked myself 'if I were an omnicidal maniac who needed to keep a location secret and inaccessible for eight months, where would I start?'
I quite like Vaikuntha and have no desire whatsoever to see it come to harm because some moron with more power than sense decided their life was too tragic and unbearable to carry on so they might as well take everyone else with them

that would be incredibly stupid and also horribly wrong

[zanarkandian]

Heh. Glad we agree.

All right, then. I'll focus my efforts on figuring out how to get in there...without potentially tipping them off.