the_last_resort | so i'll just keep dreaming, dreaming

Entry tags:

so i'll just keep dreaming, dreaming

Who: Braska & YOU
What: Three open starters and one private one!
(1) Braska's door is always open, whether it's for business or chilling with friends.
(2) He's got a lot of learnings to do, about science and other cultures, so the library in the resort is somewhere Braska spends part of his free time.
(3) Machina used for fun??? OMG. Aka, Braska is entirely tickled by everything Mr. Jellicles has to offer.
(4) Braska and Lindir hang out to share songs and stuff.
When: Over the past week
Where: (1) Full Cure (Braska's shop); (2) the resort library; (3) Mr. Jellicles; (4) wherever Braska and Lindir decide to hang out
Notes & Warnings: Will match you for prose or brackets!

Title + cut text song. Gif involving bright colors and stupid dancing under the cut to make the OP feel less empty. Clickit if you wanna see the source.

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The curiousity in Braska's face is open and obvious. He even tilts his head, though it's more to get a better look at the crystal than anything else.

"No, I don't. What is it?"

"A soul shard. Only part of a soul, before you yell."

She rummages in her bag and pulls out her translator, sets it beside his book. Explaining what it does is not something she wants to try in Standard.

Braska kind of wants to yell anyway. Part of a soul. That is a soul. He is a soul wrapped up in pyreflies. That is a him. Part of a him.

He blanches and opens and closes his mouth uselessly a couple of times before giving up altogether.

Emilia glares. "Don't be a baby."

She starts, then, in Common, with the communicator translating in Jeffers' cheerful tones almost as fast as she can speak.

"A soul shard is siphoned from a living being, or at least one that's currently using its soul. It's dark magic, but that's not the point. The point is that this is what they're supposed to look like, if the soul is working normally."

Her explanation doesn't seem to help any. He manages to look appropriately abashed when she glares at him, but. Well. He's still being a baby. Just more on the inside than the outside, now. At least that's something.

"I'm following you so far," he says, albeit a little slowly. "I assume you are here because of what may happen instead of this?"

"Yes."

Out of the same bag, she hauls a significantly heavier crystal - also hollow and purple, full of smoke, but this one twisted and compartmented, branched, distorted, with multiple points and terminals.

It's nearly five times the size of the first crystal. She sets it on the book also.

"This came from a soul also. That's the problem I want to talk to you about."

Braska frowns now. His curiousity is coupling with his devotion to solving problems to calm him down. The concept may be startling, but if he's to be of any help to her, he can't take the time he'd like to adjust to it. Sink or swim.

"What causes this?"

"Necromancy."

That's the closest Jeffers can come to translating it, anyway. The way she wrinkles her nose suggests it's a much more derogatory term than the clinical description of the art.

"Sick fucking bastards cut up souls. Meld them together and use them to power monsters."

Braska shifts, folding his hands into the long sleeves of his robes.

"To do such a thing..." he murmurs. He can't even begin to imagine what kind of person...

He shakes his head. That's neither here nor there. "What can I help with?" Magic such as this is as foreign to him in concept as execution, but he's going to try. He has to.

"Fix him."

She nudges the twisted crystal gently onto another side.

Braska's brow drops into a deep furrow.

"Fix?" he echoes. He leans over, now, to get a better look at the crystal. "I... will certainly do what I can," he says slowly. "But I may need more time to learn about this kind of magic. There isn't something even remotely... hmmm." Actually. "No... That's not quite true.

"The closest thing we have to this on Spira are fayth statues..." His memories associated with that train of thought puts a chill down his spine. "I know of the general principles behind their creation... But the act itself was kept a closely guarded secret by the higher ranks of the church."

He straightens, fighting the urge to shake his head at himself. Even then... Could the study of fayth statues truly help? Could he piece a soul back together? He can't say he understands why his soul is in one piece today.

But this crystal is a person who needs his help. That isn't hard for him to understand. And he isn't going to say no just because he doesn't yet know how to help.

"What are they?"

Emilia leans over the counter, eager. This is her life's work, or at least her undeath's.

"The fayth were once human, but they willingly gave their lives to become fayth. Their souls were bound to stone statues, where they would then dream. Dream, and wait for a summoner to come to them. Summoners would pilgrimage all across Spira to pray to these fayth, for if the fayth saw them as worthy, the fayth would create a soul-bond with them, through which the summoner could call upon the dreams of the fayth. The summoners would then give these dreams physical forms called aeons, creatures of great power. It is a very old art."

She taps the crystal.

"How's that like this?"

"When I was younger, I would hear and read of theories that the fayth became the statues -- that the statues were not carved out of rock, but were formed as a new body for the soul." His expression darkens. "Much later, I would see it for myself that this was the case."

He removes a hand from his robes to spread his fingers. "And the bond between fayth and summoner -- It can be severed. But it is a very painful thing, and it does damage to the summoner's soul in the process. But that fact is much less well-known, and has never been studied."

"How do you sever the bond? Is there a way to remove a fayth from a statue without killing it? In what circumstances does a summoner need to be severed from a fayth?"

"For all of those questions, I only have one answer, because I only know of the one circumstance."

Braska tucks his hand back into his robes and turns away, walking to the nearest window. His eyes aren't seeing through it, though. He sighs.

"There was once a being that could possess aeons." His voice is low, and all traces of his normal mirth is gone. "It was put to rest two years ago, thankfully. But it would possess the aeon, and through it, possess the fayth itself. It cut the bond between fayth and summoner itself, I believe, so that it would do with the fayth as it wished. The process would kill the summoner. Once the fayth was freed from its prison, its statue would disappear."

Edited 2014-09-03 05:16 (UTC)

"A self-inflicted prison."

Emilia's lip curls.

"What became of the loose fayth?"

Braska turns back around. "No. The prison I speak of is the possession. The fayth that had been possessed did choose to become the fayth, but they did not know that the possession would happen. That is not the fate they chose."

He shakes his head slowly. "I want to assume that they are then free to travel to the Farplane. But... There was a very, very long time that I cannot speak for. I do not know. But, in the end, I know that all moved on."

"How do we apply this?"

Braska is silent for a moment, thinking. A way would need to be found to repair the soul, this is true. But to give a different form to it, a body...

"Once the soul is mended," he says slowly, "then... for him to have a body again, then perhaps... If a soul bond is made with him, as though he were a fayth, perhaps his body could be summoned, like an aeon.

"But that is several steps down the line. The reparation of the soul is going to require much more study. The magic that is used to create this crystal... To know how to heal this wound, I'll need to know the details of how it was created."

"He's bound to a body, though."

Emilia picks the crystal back up, waves it for emphasis.

"This is a sliver of what he is now, not the whole thing."

"Ah?" Braska blinks. "Oh. Oh, I see."

... there is a pause as several pieces click into place. And that pause lengthens as Braska tries to figure out a way to phrase this so that it isn't too offensive.

"Is it the body that he will keep, once his soul is restored?"

These broken soul shards are used to 'power monsters,' she said. And her sensitivity about fiends... He believes that he understands, now, more than he did before.

"Hell if I know. Is it even possible to cut apart a soul without doing the same to the body?"

Braska shudders, because of the way that answered his question. "I don't know," he confesses. "But then, there is much I don't yet know about this kind of magic. I must learn about it, somehow. Are there books here from your world in the resort library, do you know?"

(no subject)

ewestmarch - 2014-09-10 14:10 (UTC) - Expand

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