Abysmal Awakening (OPEN)

[Mieko]

It was dark. My body felt languid as if I were suspended in nothingness. I tried opening my eyes, but couldn't. Or maybe it was that they were open and there was just nothing to see. I was still there, but yet not. I don't know how long I had been in that state. Hours, days, months? Hell it could have been years for all I could tell. But eventually I vacated that 'place'.

There was what felt like a vacuum, sucking me back to where I was supposed to go next. Or was it cramming me back into my body? Had I died? I didn't think I had. I remembered being in Bevelle. Home. something strange had happened in the chambers below the temple and I had accompanied Praetor Barali to investigate. It was.. a black hole? Abyss? I couldn't quite remember. Whatever it was, he got sucked into it and I had jumped in after him.

That's right.. The Praetor should be here with me. Shouldn't he? I attempted to extend my 'senses' and couldn't feel anything. As far as I could tell, I was alone. My heart picked up speed and raced furiously in my chest as the urge to find the Praetor pressed heavier upon me.

Wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up!!

Without warning,light engulfed my vision and I forced myself out of the nothingness. Suddenly, I could feel again. I was lying flat on my back staring up at a vast blue sky. Everything ached, from my head to my toes, but it reassured me. Forcing myself to sit up, I groggily evaluated my surroundings with surprise. "I am definitely not in Bevelle anymore", an ocean was spread out before me, sparkling brilliantly in the warm sunlight. I was lying on a seashore. My question, was exactly where?

[Ouranus Nova]

Ouranus looked up in the sunlight, relaxing as she seemed to gathering focus once again. She found that on the beach she was able to gather her thoughts and be able to find some kind of center for herself. The silver haired girl seemed to be almost in a meditative state, unaware of much until she opened her eyes. She squinted as she looked at the girl who was also on the beach as well. She rubbed her eyes, thinking that her eyes were now playing tricks on her. But after a few moments she realized that it wasn't just some kind of dream. The girl seemed to have popped out of nowhere. But from the look of things, the girl seemed to be unconscious for the moment. Ouranus stood up, dusting the sand off her legs as she came to her aid. She knelt down next to her, looking into her eyes as she spoke with a voice of concern. "Hey, are you alright? Where are you from?"

[Mieko]

Grains of sand clung to me as I propped my legs up and leaned back on the heels of my palms to stare at the sky. The sand made my irritation spike a bit as I felt grains slipping though the fabric of my undergarments, thanks to my wearing a short outfit, rubbing against my bottom. Oh how I hated sand. It didn't serve any purpose but to annoy me whenever it found its' way into areas and crevices it shouldn't be. I would most definitely strip all of my clothing off later to shake the gawd forsaken stuff out.

I let out a heavy sigh just as an unknown voice very close to me caught me by surprise. My head jerked to the direction I'd heard, and tilted back slightly to get a good look at the stranger who'd approached.

"Hey, are you alright? Where are you from?" The woman's golden hues bore into mine with a genuine concern, something that I hadn't seen in a while. Normally, I would have assumed my "in control" persona, but I was a bit caught off guard at the moment, so I showed her a bit of kindness.

"I'm alright as far as I know" I replied, with a tentative smile (I wasn't quite used to smiling due to my always wearing a "poker face" while in service, so it came out a little awkwardly).

Brushing back a strand of my violet hair nervously, I licked my lips before speaking once again.

"I'm uh, from Bevelle." My eyes immediately drifted to the woman's face, watching for any warning signs that I might need to heed.

[Ouranus Nova]

"Whew."

Ouranus breathed a sigh of relief as she looked down at the purple eyed girl. She had been concerned with her well being and she was worried that something really bad happened to her. When she said that she had been from Bevelle, Ouranus tilted her head and pulled out her book. She seemed to be thumbing through the pages that she had saved for the areas around Spira. But as she scanned through the pages, the silver haired girl seemed to realize that either the area was not brought through the Cataclysm, or she had not explored it yet. As she sat down in the sand, Ouranus began to explain herself. "I'm glad you are safe miss. My name is Ouranus Nova, and I am from Alexandria. It's a kingdom from the Mist Continent. If you do not mind me asking, can you tell me about Bevelle?"

[Mieko]

I watched as she settled down into the sand next to me, and pulled out a notebook. At once she began thumbing through it, as if she were searching for something, or trying to translate what Bevelle meant. I gave the woman a secret doubtful look while she wasn't paying attention, and pat myself down. Once my hand brushed against my blade, I instantly felt some bit of tension ease. I realized just how dependent on my weapon I was then. Note to self; train more without a weapon.

Refocusing on the woman next to me, I re-processed the information that I'd gathered within the first few minutes of our meeting. So she was from a place called The Mist Continent.. Where was that located? For that matter, where am I? And why does she want to know about Bevelle??

Frowning enough for a crease in my brow to form, I tilted my head at her incredulously.

"You don't know anything about Bevelle?!" My eyes mirrored my inner shock and confusion as I stared at her with my mouth slightly ajar. Just where in Sin's name had the abyss transported me to? Was this a completely different world? The thought made my stomach nauseous as I tipped forward dizzily. Before I succumbed to the urge, I caught myself and took long, slow, deep breaths.

Rather than focus on my growing panic, I squelched any uneasiness I felt for the moment, determined to answer the stranger's question to deter myself.

"Aside from it being my hometown, it's pretty much the capital city of Spira. You know, the place where the Yevon religion was born? Well now New Yevon sort of runs things.. but it's still very much a religious attached city." As an afterthought I added, "Oh, and you may call me Mieko."

Lady Ouranus Nova hmm? I wonder why she's so curious about Bevelle.. And what is in that book she carries?

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[Ouranus Nova]

"Sadly no, I have not encountered the city."

She opened her book and showed Meiko what she had been working on. It was a log of every place that she had encountered. She had left behind many little bookmarks whenever she needed to reference something, but she had not found a bookmark pertaining to the city known as Bevelle. As she talked about religion though, Ouranus simply tilted her head and seemed to have a look of confusion on her face. With her, religion usually came in the stories of the eidolons of old. There was no singular religion. If anything, the stories of Abadon were the grounds of how to act not only in the battlefield but also in life as well. But still she had been curious about it, so the silver haired girl wrote down in the Spira section of the notes she had acquired about New Yevon. She still she did seem interested to know as much about Spira as possible. Perhaps if she knew enough, maybe she could be able to help her out to locate where ever Bevelle was.

[Mieko]

She hadn't encountered Bevelle yet? Just what was happening in this place exactly?

"What exactly is going on here?" she inquired, maneuvering so she was sitting closer to Ouranus so she could peer into the book that she was holding. It was marked up with so many bookmarks, and the section she was currently writing in was titled 'Spira'. Did that mean she'd encountered other people from Spira? It had to mean that.. right?

Her violet hues raked the page that she could view from her position, curious as to what all information Lady Ouranus had gathered on her homeland.

"I was down in the lower chambers of the temple with the Praetor when he got sucked into a black abyss... Is that relevant to what's been happening here?" She was trying to wrap her mind around her current predicament, and was trying to come up with a solution. Hopefully.

Mentioning the person in question, her gaze immediately whipped around and searched the beach for any signs of her beloved Praetor, only to discover no other bodies lying around. Where had he been sent?

[Ouranus Nova]

She doesn't know...

"This is going to take some time to explain. I suggest you find a comfortable spot."

Ouranus sat down on the ground as she started to flip through the pages of her book once again. "The short story is that there something very massive must have happened to cause our worlds to merge. I have no idea what would have caused it, but whatever it was had to be something beyond this world." As she spoke, she started to flip the pages, showing Meiko the different areas that she had been in to show just how many places were touched by it. "If Bevelle had been able to escape its touch, then I consider it very lucky. While Besaid had been unharmed during the Cataclysm, my kingdom had been consumed by a force called the Mist. The Mist used to simply attracted monsters like moths to a flame, but during the Cataclysm it warped the minds of many people...," Ouranus' voice trailed off for a moment, deep in thought about the time she had to fight her way out of Alexandria. As Meiko explained about a black abyss, she did make a note of it in her book. "I do not know anything about a black abyss. For me, Alexandria didn't show any signs except for the Mist continued to build up until it was too late."

[Mieko]

It was odd that Besaid had survived the Cataclysm. Nothing very important was there. The only place that I could think that was famous about Besaid was that High Summoner Yuna began her Pilgrimage their, and it was home to the Besaid Aurochs.

"I thought that we may have encountered the Farplanes.. since it was in the lower chambers of the temple. Odd things are known to happen down there.." Thinking along those lines, a brilliant thought popped into my mind. "Perhaps the Fayth sent us here?! Well, the people from Spira anyways..."

That had to be it! For something this strange to happen, it must be the will of the Fayth!

It made perfect sense now. I clapped my hands together once at my brilliance, ignoring the fact that even more grains of sand were sneaking their way into my clothing, and returned my attention to Lady Ouranus. It may not be exactly what had happened, but the explanation would do for now.

"So you're saying that fragments of other worlds are being brought here and are forced to morph together?"

How weird.. Why would anyone want to do that? My violet hues were trained intently on the woman before me, eagerly awaiting her response.

[Ouranus Nova]

"Fayth?"

Ouranus blinked with a blank expression on her face. As she thought about it, perhaps the fayth were like the eidolons of her world. She had kept a note of that in her notes about Spira, but there had been something that even made her stop for a moment in pause. The silver haired girl seemed to be even more confused about the Farplane. She had wanted to make a note of that just in case she had wanted to speak more about it. Whatever the Farplane was, it was connected to the Fayth in some way. In the travels that her father talked about, even he wouldn't have even encountered something like that. But her mind remained on the question she had asked Ouranus. Nodding her head, she looked out into the distance and then pointed out to the mountains. "Yes, many pieces of different worlds were all combined to form this one world. The degree of how the worlds were affected range drastically. In Besaid there is very little damage done to it. However, my kingdom had been heavily damaged. That is why I travel; to help my kingdom not only with my sword, but also to figure things out."

[Mieko]

"Ah. So you're on a quest to map out the lands."

How.. prehistoric. I suppose it would be something that needed done since Ouranus's kingdom and Spira were ripped apart and then shoved together, along with who knew how many other worlds.

I sat there in the sand for a few silent minutes, just gazing at this new woman who was explaining things to me. It was quite the predicament I was in. For all I knew, Praetor Barali could be across oceans, or on the other side of this forsaken land mass.

A sliver of hopelessness crept it's way into my heart as my mind wandered. What if I never find the Praetor? Just what would I do with myself then? Was there any possible way to return all of the world to their previous states?

It was obvious what my first objective was to be. Finding the Praetor was at the top of my to-do list. However searching the land far and wide wouldn't do me any good since I was completely unfamiliar with the new area.

So my next idea was to find someone who did, and would be willing to take along a stranger like myself. While Lady Ouranus was kind enough to explain things for me, I wasn't sure how asking to tag along with her would go. She was after all on a quest for her kingdom. And I figured if she was like me, that would take precedence.

Instead of immediately asking her, I opted to ask more questions about her in order to assess if even traveling with her would be an option.

"If you don't mind me asking, just what exactly is your position in your kingdom? You're mapping out the land.. so doesn't that make you an important person?"

[Ouranus Nova]

"If you're asking if I am a queen, I am not. I am simply a soldier...well actually more like an explorer like my father would be."

As she said that, she had a somber expression on her face as she spoke. "If things were different I would have been easily on the path of my mother and become a knight. She taught me a lot about how to use a sword in combat and even trained all of us together. Eventually out of the children I was the one that surpassed them all." As she said that, she showed her the crest that she wielded and the sword that she carries on her back. "But with much of the kingdom in disarray, I knew that my blade wasn't going to be enough anymore. My father traveled a lot of our continent before everything happened. He used to tell us the most interesting stories and even wrote down what he saw. I guess in a way this is how I try to remember him as well," she said while looking at the book.