AU Week - FFX Hunter Sunshine

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine finds the door to the bar just as the evening rain starts to pick up in the misty swampland surrounding the Vesperpool. Her rough, travel-worn boots and grey trousers are soaked up to the knee, and large drops spatter her sleeveless, grey-blue top, dusty rucksack, and faded green cap. Some tightness about her look fades and some tension about her shoulders relaxes as she sees where she is. Sunshine shuts the door on the gathering gloom and enters the well-lit bar room with a faint smile on her face, looking for friends, something hot to eat and drink, and somewhere she can sit and take the weight off her feet.

"Ebony, please, dear Bar," she requests as she swings her rucksack off her shoulders and onto a barstool, her dogtags jingling from the movement, then sits herself down as the fragrantly steaming black coffee appears. This is no camp coffee. It should be savored, and she definitely intends to.

Comments

[galen_erso]

"You can talk to the bar?" asks the man in nondescript jeans and a washed-out tee-shirt (that probably once held some generically marine logo) who comes walking up to the bar with something resembling bewildered caution. "This is really some advanced tech."

[sunbaked_baker]

The red-haired woman, travel-worn but in good spirits, smiles at the man over the top of her mug. Her clothes are faded as well as dirty, but are meant to be rugged and long-lasting. The woman herself is looking forward to a long-term bath after she rests a bit. The hilts of two long daggers, almost long enough to be considered short swords, glint from their scabbards at her sides. "Magic, tech, some combination of both? I'm not terribly sure, myself. I'm sure the coffee's good though - that's what counts."

[galen_erso]

"Magic?" the man says, with deep incredulity. "As in, sufficiently advanced technology?"

They have animatronic trilobites here. They can potentially do anything -- but who would?

[sunbaked_baker]

"As in magic," the woman replies with a grin. She a slight rural American twang to her words, if anything. "It's okay if you're skeptical; it's not exactly common where I come from, and I hear some come here from worlds completely without any."

[galen_erso]

"Excuse me?" he says. "Worlds?"

[sunbaked_baker]

The woman blinks at him, then something of her confusion disperses. "Astrals, you're new, are you? I'm so sorry. I thought..."

She shakes her head. "Nevermind what I thought. Welcome to Milliways, the..." though she knows it's going to sound impossible, "bar at the end of the universe. People come here from all sorts of times and places and worlds."

[galen_erso]

"It said so on the leaflet we got," the man says. "Neat concept for a geek bar. We were rather taken aback when we walked in, though. Perhaps we should have got a guidebook after all."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine brightens mildly. "So you got the welcome pamphlet? Definitely read it; It explains a lot for newcomers, though most people still have questions. Or, you know, doubts."

She suspects the latter.

"My name's Sunshine, by the way. I'm from the kingdom of Lucis, M.E. 756, currently stationed at the Vesperpool in the Cleigne region. Where and when are you from?"

[galen_erso]

She seems to believe it all. Or perhaps this is what people do in this place -- create themselves a persona. Galen is flustered, but quickly recovers. "We, erm, we don't have a story to tell yet. We just wandered in totally by accident because we wanted dinner. Sorry."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine pauses, and gives a faint chuckle.

"No really," she tries to sound reassuring. "That's how people find this place the first time. Milliways was behind the doorway to the shop in Meldacio, the first time I found myself here. Thought I was caught in some sort of demon trick or mirage. But thankfully, that wasn't the case."

[galen_erso]

"Ummm..."

She really believes this, does she? Or is just really good at acting.

"We, erm, may have bitten off more than we can chew. Even though the steak is excellent."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine isn't unsympathetic. "I can prove it to you, if you'd like? Where'd you come in from?"

[galen_erso]

"From the main tourist street in the old town," Galen says, "even though there's not that many tourists this year because of the refugees coming in by sea."

Which she must know.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Not many tourists where I'm in from," she says, taking a last sip of her coffee before getting to her feet. "Some come for the fishing, but not many else."

She steps over to the door, and opens it to the humid, rainy swamp forests at the edge of a vast lake, swathed in drifts of rain at the edge of evening. Cypress knees stick up from the shallow edge, where an aged wooden dock juts out over the lake surface.

"Refugees from the Crown City are mostly heading to Lestallum," she says, letting him see the view through the door. "Not an out of the way place like this."

[galen_erso]

Galen just gapes like a fish for a moment or two.

"That," he says, "is not where we came in from."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Yep," she agrees, gesturing him over to the door as she closes it. Some of the rain had spattered on the bar floor. No reason to leave it open longer than necessary.

"Now you try opening it "

[galen_erso]

He opens the door, touching the handle as if it might bite -- and there it is, a touristy pedestrian zone in some Mediterranean town, old whitewashed walls and little hole-in-the-wall shops selling postcards and craft items and herbs and fresh orange juice, and the occasional person wandering by. There is a café a few houses further down, and elderly local men talking loudly, as well as some more tourists having drinks. It's early evening, and the air is warm and soft and slightly salty.

"That is where we came in from!"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Oh! It looks nice!" Sunshine's smile broadens with curiosity and delight. The sea smells amazing after weeks in the close forest and swamps and lack of civilization.

[galen_erso]

"It's a very nice place," Galen says, "but people have stayed away, mostly because they were afraid of seeing dead refugees washed up on their favourite beaches. So instead of vacationing there as I'd done before, I've spent my last few years' holidays working with people on chartered ships fishing living people out of the sea. That's how I met Bodhi, over there. He was on a crammed and leaky fishing boat."

[sunbaked_baker]

Her faces changes as he explains, sobering into look of understanding and concern. She thinks of Lestallum, the hot and lively city, it's own growing refugee population, and the difficulties there.

"That is good of you to do," she says, clasping his shoulder briefly. Sunshine shakes her head. "Glacian's tears, desperation leads humanity to take such great risks. Do your efforts have everything they need? Is there anything you might lack, that might be found here?"

That is one of the better parts of Milliways, in her opinion. Healing when you are hurting, food when you are starving, time when you are falling.

[galen_erso]

"They kicked me off the boat, for fraternising with Bodhi and giving lip to the guy who organises it -- not the captain of the ship, just a a hopped-up volunteer," Galen says. "Also, on our behalf, our medic socked him one. Hard."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine makes a sound of disgust in her throat. "You do sometimes run into people more concerned with the look of things than with the purpose they are volunteering for. They damage their efforts with their shortsightedness."

"Will you continue to volunteer? Would there be other boats?"

[galen_erso]

"Yes of course," Galen says, "and yes of course. I guess it's something Bodhi and I can do together. He can cook in small cramped conditions, and I can repair stuff in the same."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Both useful and necessary skills," remarks the hunter, emphatically. "It's one thing to be able to create fancy dishes from well-stocked kitchens - another entirely to have the know-how necessary to cobble together something delicious from a handful of disparate, raw ingredients, a pan, and a rickety camp stove."

"And everything needs repairing, in time. Woe betide the people who are in need of mechanical know-how and haven't got it."

[galen_erso]

"Especially on a ship, which is actually a huge conglomeration of large machines."

[sunbaked_baker]

"That's what I hear, though I've never been on one, myself," she remarks. "I've made it as far as the cape, once or twice - it's a real pretty area - but my usual stomping grounds are far from the coast."

[galen_erso]

"But you have seen the sea?" Galen says, almost horrified at the thought she might not have.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine chuckles, holding her hands up in front of her in a calming gesture. "Yes, yes, I've seen the sea. The cape - Cape Caem - is where the great lighthouse is on the southern shore of the kingdom. I stayed with the family that keeps the lighthouse, while I was there. The view of the Cygillan Ocean from the top is amazing."

[galen_erso]

Galen looks up, as if to determine something.

"Do you have a map of your world?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Oh, of course," she replies. "I mean, the majority of the world."

Sunshine pulls her dusty, travel-worn rucksack closer to her, and opens it up. It's full of various things - iridescent plumage carefully wrapped up to keep it clean and unbroken; a small sack of red-brown uncut gems; two small vials of silver and gold dust; small supplies of various foraged and preserved foodstuffs; a bundle of potentially-useful scrap metal; a couple of vials of blue liquid; various claws and scales and horns that may be valuable for sale; and, eventually, a rolled-up map.

"Here," Sunshine says, clearing a space on the bar so she can unroll it. "It's a few years old, and some of the information from the southern continent is probably way out of date due to lack of updated information, but it's pretty accurate for the most part."

The world of Eos is certainly not Earth. Two major continents dominate the map, with an archipelago of islands to the southeast: the smaller, northeastern continent is criss-crossed by numerous travelways and marked by towns and a great, walled city-state in the far notheast; the larger, southwestern continent is designated as being largely icebound, seemingly barren of all but the most rudimentary labels of regions and a large capitol city within what looks like a giant crater.

[galen_erso]

"It looks nothing like our world," Galen says. "And where's the lake you showed me just now?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"The Vesperpool is here, in the northwestern part of Lucis," Sunshine points out the lake on the northeastern continent, seemingly the far north-western edge of the settled areas of the continent. Spots along the lake shore are marked with rudimentary fish-shapes, marking good fishing-spots. A little triangle-tent shape is marked on the southern shore, looped by a dirt roadway. West of the lake, a small gate-like symbol has been sketched in, with a small question mark beside it. North-east of the lake, another gate-like symbol has been marked in with far more certainty.

"I am hereabouts," she remarks, pointing to a spot at the far southern point of the lake equidistant from the sketched in gate to the west and the tent-like triangle east of her.

[galen_erso]

Galen nods. "It feels strange," he admits. "This is the very first other world I ever seriously heard about. As existing, that is."

[sunbaked_baker]

"If it makes you feel any better, it never isn't strange," she says, with wry sympathy. "Even when you've been coming here a while."

[galen_erso]

"What are the gates all about?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Ah, those mark where some... I guess you could call them points of interest? Steyliff Grove is up here," she points to the set gate to the northeast. "Old ruins, seriously creepy place. I've not ventured very far in there, and wouldn't unless I had some reliable back-up."

"This one here's the Myrlwood," Rae points to the other, lightly-sketched in icon with the question mark. "It's a rather labyrinthine forest, very secluded. Not much of it has been explored."

"Hunters like me have been asked to help suss out where the royal tombs might've been hidden, since a lot of them have been lost to time. I had intended on checking there today, but I ran into a stranded angler caught too far from a haven too late in the day, and had to detour to get them to safety before sundown."

[galen_erso]

"What happens after sundown?"

[sunbaked_baker]

The hunter shakes her head. "That's when the daemons come out. They can't come out by day, or in strong light, or within range of the protected havens. But everywhere else? Fair game. And they mainly show up if there's... something to eat."

Someone to eat, she means.

[galen_erso]

"They eat people?" Galen says, both horrified and fascinated. "So yours is a world where humans aren't the apex predators. What do the demons look like?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Well... the daemons are... well, they are people who fell to daemons," she says, uncomfortably.

They are people who didn't have help, or weren't gotten to in time. Or were stranded alone too late in the day. They are the hunters' primary enemies and signs of the hunters' failures.

"There are lots of kinds of daemon. From small, fast imps to... towering figures of fire and darkness. And everything in between."

[galen_erso]

"So dead people turn into small imps or something, depending on rules unknown, and then catch, eat and turn more people?" Galen asks.

Are other worlds always that strange? Does his world seem that weird to her?

[sunbaked_baker]

"Science folks say it's all down to some parasite that takes over a person and turns them into another daemon upon death, if they're not found and get healed in time."

A tragically common fate for hunters who overdo it or get caught by overwhelming odds too far from a haven.

"Thankfully the daemons and the... parasite are vulnerable to light, and don't generally show up in well-populated areas or at all during daylight. While the sun still rises, there's still hope."

[galen_erso]

"But if they make it stop, the world would be theirs," Galen nods, "which would be evolutionarily very stupid. No good parasite kills its host."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I don't know about 'good,' but plenty of parasites kill their hosts," remarks the Hunter, dry. "I'm no expert, but even I've seen grasshoppers forced to drown themselves in the swamp so the worms growin' in them can get out. And those strangler plants that'll just use a tree like a prop until it's dead and just another source of nutrients. Maybe if we don't keep fighting and don't win, the scourge we're dealing with'll spread to some other world and devour its light as well."

[galen_erso]

"Entirely, I mean," Galen says. "If the host becomes extinct, they starve. Do you think the daemons would be able to go through here, or some such place?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Glacian's tears, I hope not," she replies, shocked. That was not a possibility that had crossed her mind.

[galen_erso]

"It probably depends on how human they still are," Galen says. "Are they more like vampires, or more like zombies?"

As he says it, he realises that those two categories of mythical undead monsters probably mean nothing to her.

[sunbaked_baker]

"If they are still human, then they are generally not... contagious," she says, hesitantly. "It is when they are no longer who they were that they become truly dangerous."

[galen_erso]

"Do they realise, when they are still mostly human?" Galen asks, trying to gauge the horror of the idea.