pulseof_life | Oerba, Gran Pulse, Wednesday

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Oerba, Gran Pulse, Wednesday

Rather than remain in New Bodhum for the day, though they would return there for the night, Caius teleported them all to the ruins of a village. The buildings were made of metal (heavily rusted) and wood, which had held up surprisingly well under the ravages of time. Inside the buildings, personal things could be found: combs left on dressers, a few ancient photographs, and neatly folded blankets forgotten on the ends of beds.

A wide road cut through the village and a broad staircase led down to a murky beach. On top of one of the buildings, an overgrown fountain and the remnants of a garden could be found.

Powered crystal, which looked like snow from far away, and like sand close up, choked the side streets and surrounded the village.

"Welcome," Yeul said softly, "to Oerba."

[NFB and for them that have been invited. The theme songs for Oerba are: Dust to Dust and Ruined Hometown.]

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The funny thing about arms was that they bent.

When the intruder grabbed it by the forearm, the Seeker simply bent at the elbow, the rest of the arm coming forward abruptly to try and smash into the intruder and make it let go.

NO FAIR, MR. GRABBY! THAT WAS CHEATING!

Well, his plan worked! Sorta! With a rocky fist to the cheek, Zeela was letting go, but it was to fling the creature down against the hard-packed dirt.

*I could have told you that would happen,* Zhahar sighed. *It's an arm, Zeela.*

"Well, thanks for being on top of pointing it all out," Zeela growled, following up the throw with a vicious stomp, aiming for the fingers this time. "Otherwise I might have gotten hit in the face or something!"

*You're the one who 'doesn't need any help'!* Zhahar could be snide when she needed to be.

::Guys? Can we maybe argue about this later?:: Sholeh asked.

"At least I have one sister with sense," Zeela sighed.

::I'm trying to study how it moves and you're being distracting.::

"Never mind."

While the Seeker was glad to be back on the ground, getting fingers stomped on wasn't fun and it rolled back.

Then a shockwave of power blasted from it, shoving at the intruder, trying to knock her down.

There was nothing of grace in Zeela's trip through the air. There was a comical buzzah? expression as she flew and she managed to land with her limbs loose as she'd been taught, but it was still a fairly ridiculous sight.

She lay still for a moment, checking her body for damage and making sure her head wasn't spinning.

"That, I did not see coming," she wheezed.

Would she also not see it coming?

The Seeker rolled around, making a circle, then began dragging itself towards the intruder at a startlingly fast pace...

... for an arm.

Oh, Zeela saw it coming. But she just lay there.

On the off-chance she hadn't noticed it, her sisters were only too happy to keep up a running commentary on it.

*Zeela, it's crawling towards us.*

*Seriously, Zee, it's a fast little creeper.*

*Did you miss the bit where the killer arm is coming to literally rip your face off?*

*Zeela! I can feel you! You are not that hurt! Get UP!*

::Zee? I'm can see that it has hangnails and, you know, that's more research than I think I wanted.::

At that, Zeela leaned over and snatched Mr. Grabby up by the wrist while her other hand clamped on just above the elbow. Then she slammed it over her bent knee, hoping to snap it like a branch.

Her knee was probably in more pain than it, given that he was hard as rock!

The Seeker's fingers flailed at her wrist even as it's shoulder struggled to hit something, anything, at all.

Zeela's response to that discovery was a string of language that her mothers would not appreciate their daughter knowing.

"That hurt, you nasty chunk of basalt!" she yelped. "Why. Don't. You. Stop!"

Even word was punctuated by a slam against the ground. She'd let go of the elbow, just holding the wrist now, and used her grip to bash the stupid thing. "I'm not going to be beaten--By. A. Stupid. Hand!"

The Seeker tried and tried again to beat her with it's shoulder.

When it got tired of that, it summoned that blast of air again.

And Zeela went tumbling over again, but this time, she managed to hold on to Mr. Grabby.

At least until she realized what a terrible (and painful) plan that was. Then she couldn't drop him fast enough.

This time, when she hit the ground, she rolled until she could land on her knees and jump back up again. "This thing just doesn't stop," she bitched, breath coming in deep gasps. But she was grinning as she said it. This was pretty much the most fun she'd had in weeks.

*It's an arm made out of rock,* Zhahar reminded her. *What do you think you're going to do to it? Hurt its feelings?*

'Mr. Grabby' skittered in what seemed like aimless circles for a bit then lingered out of reach, fingers tapping, and waiting.

Waiting.

Then it scrambled for her ankles again.

It was hurt but it wasn't dead yet. It could do more.

Mr. Grabby was going to get hung up on their dorm room wall as a trophy if Zeela ever got around to killing it. And she'd use it to bash people's brains in if they messed with her and her sisters.

"Hey, you like rocks?" Zeela asked as it came skittering at her? "Have one on me, then!"

She dove for a fist-sized rock that had once been part of someone's garden border and whipped it at the advancing creature. She had a pretty decent arm (attached, obviously) and so long as it didn't take any kind of evasive maneuvers, she was pretty confident she'd hit the little bugger.

Ow.

That hurt! The Seeker rolled back, then slowly began advancing again.

It hurt, but didn't stop it.

*You can't really be trying to wear out a rock,* Zhahar said, disbelieving. *'Enduring as a rock' is a cliche for a reason!*

"Not gonna let that stop me," Zeela mumbled. "I'm more stubborn than any stupid rock could hope to be."

*Zeela! It's a rock!*

No dice, Zhahar. Zeela was already snatching up her stick and flinging herself back at Mr. Grabby, intending to slam it down onto the rock as hard as she could.

Ow ow ow!

The Seeker flailed, trying to smash at the intruder's arms, torso, anything.

Stupid stick. It hurt more now than it had before.

It got a couple of good, solid hits in, ones that Zeela would be feeling for days. She didn't let that stop her though. She just kept solidly bringing the stick down and down and down again, finding a rhythm and falling into it.

It was like a dance, but with way more hitting. And awesome.

And eventually the Seeker stopped moving, lying still on the ground for a moment, before crumbling and disappearing into nothingness.

Too bad more of them were stirring and with them, was coming their larger cousin, a Ghast was with them.

It's fira spells would be painful.

Zeela didn't really notice them. She was busy crowing out her victory--and, okay, trying to figure out where Mr. Grabby had gone. "Yes!" she said, arms thrust up in the air. She was exhausted, yes, but victorious. "I did it! I did it! I told you worrywarts I didn't need help from anybody!"

::Umm, Zeela?:: Sholeh said, voice small. ::Did you notice it had friends?::

"Wha--?" Zeela looked up in time to notice a fireball careening at her head. "ACK!" she cried, flinging herself down and getting a faceful of crystal-sand for her troubles.

*Great!* Zhari shrieked. *We're all going to die and it's all because you can't cooperate!*

Caius had been impressed, truth be told, at the vigor with which Zeela had gone after the Seeker, and had enjoyed keeping an eye on her, while sporadically making sure the others and Yeul remained well.

When the Ghast showed up, however, Caius knew that Zeela was in over her head.

Taking care of the Ghast, for him, was as simple as a single swipe of his sword before he landed lightly, almost casually, in front of Zeela. A pulse of energy, carefully directed, exploded from him and took out the Seekers before they even realized there was another threat.

Then he turned to look at Zeela. "I'm certain," he said quietly, "that I told you to be careful."

Zeela had also been impressed by Caius's...everything. You know, the casual sword-swipe, the giant leap, the energy blast, the way his butt looked in his pants and the way his ~~pretty pretty~~ hair moved...

So rather than anything coherent, like an explanation of how she HAD been being careful, right up to when she'd stopped, she just gaped at him and said, "You are so cool." And then, before she sounded like ~~more of~~ an idiot, she added, "They didn't even know you were there!"

"Of course not," he said, vaguely amused. "There are far more formidable monsters than these. How injured are you?"

"Ha, yeah right," Zeela said, rolling her eyes. Ignore the bruise forming on her cheek. That was a badge of honor, yo. "A few lucky shots barely counts."

"Good," he said simply. "Get up and we'll rejoin the others. More monsters will be coming here."

Because of all the commotion.

Zeela took stock of her body--and her sisters' temper--and reluctantly nodded. She was pretty worn out after Mr. Grabby's attack alone. Even just another round with one of his friends would tucker her out.

"Okay," she said, stretching before her muscles could tighten up. "Let's--"

And then she noticed something sparkling in the sand. "Why are their crystals here?"

Lolwhut?

"The Seekers left them behind," he said, glancing over them nonchalantly. "They're called Cie'th Tears. Keep them, if you want. They're not particularly valuable."