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moogle_workshop2011-06-12 02:28 pm
sai_salamander) wrote in moogle_workshop2011-06-12 02:28 pm
fic: Spira Infinita X - Of Camping
Username: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sai_salamander
Class: Thief
Chapter: X - Of Camping
Summary: David Mitchell is a Summoner, Charlie Brooker and Robert Webb are his Guardians. This is their story. They take a different route to Yuna and Company, but it takes place around the same time, chronologically. There's also meetings with FFX characters, much about the Aeons and Fayth and how these are acquired and, I hope, lots of comedy &c.
Chapter Summary: Camping, and the joys of such outdoorsy pursuits. Also, some talk about dreams.
Characters/Pairings: Yuna, Rin, all the Aeons, FFX party, random OCs. No pairings at first; but it's gearing towards Brooker/Mitchell.
Chapter word count: 3353
Cumulative word count: 14,453
Rating/warnings: Whatever rating there is for massive bad language, cos these guys are sweary mofos, yo. And also, I think this bears warning for, at some point there may what you could definitely call gay sex.
The Moonflow. The roads were wide and the weather was pleasantly good. Charlie was enjoying the simple feeling of wind not tinged with salt. It'd taken him a day or so to lose the embarrassing rolling, bow-legged walk that Rob said made him look like he'd been buggered by a Flan. It'd also taken about a day for the Fiends to get wind of new people on the road, but by that time, Charlie was itching for a good fight anyway.
"I think being cooped up on all those boats did something to your mind," Rob commented, as Charlie beheaded a Garm for the fifth time that day.
"Didn't do shit to my mind," Charlie grunted. He wiped the blade of his halberd on the grass. "I just feel like killing some stuff, alright?"
"It's not as if the Fiends on here are challenging though, is it."
"I don't want a challenge, David. I want to mindlessly slaughter Garms for a bit. The Moonflow is fucking boring, and we've only been on it for two sodding days."
"Cheer up mate," Rob said. "We've got a nice ride on a Shoopuf soon."
"Yeah, that's always a laugh," said David. "And it's better than boats, at least."
- - -
Okay, so the Shoopuf was better than boats. It was all high up, and Charlie actually quite liked the gigantic creature they were riding on. The basket barely swayed at all, and the river was peaceful on all sides of them. It was growing dark - they would have to set up camp almost as soon as they landed on the opposite bank - and the Pyreflies were out in full force. Charlie liked Pyreflies. They were pretty, although he wouldn't admit that out loud, and their funny little song made him feel calmer, somehow. Pretty macabre, really, he thought. Those things are just dead people, floating around, getting in your soup. Colourful dead people though, he admitted. They were sort of like miniature comets, and their colours reminded him of Valefor's vivid wings.
The Aeons were curious things. At once terrifying and beautiful, Charlie never really knew how to behave around them. Do you treat them like animals, or venerate them like gods? Fuck knows. He mostly just tried to stay out of their way when they were exploding things with their laser beams or filling the immediate vicinity with an inferno and not to mention throwing the entire stormy sky down on top of a single Fiend's head.
He didn't get to see them very often though - David only Summoned when the need was dire. They'd only seen Valefor once, when David was testing their connection the day after finishing the Trials.
"So which Aeon is it next?" Charlie asked, although he already knew the answer. He was leaning on the side of the basket, watching the Pyreflies.
"Shiva," David replied. Charlie saw him shiver out of the corner of his eye.
"The ice bitch." Rob grimaced. "Could Ifrit help you keep warm in there?" Neither of them really knew what happened in the Chambers of the Fayth, but after the bother with Valefor, they couldn't help but worry about the remaining Aeons.
"He probably would help, yes. But I'm not sure how... effective his help could be." David didn't say it out loud, but Charlie knew he was thinking back to Valefor. "Another slip like last time and she could turn me into a rather fetching ice-statue."
"You won't slip," Charlie said. I believe in you.
"Well, I'm glad you're convinced." David sank his head into his hands, suddenly tired. "Is it far to the bank?"
Charlie stared through the mist-shroud and shook his head. "Nah, we'll be there in no time. Dunno about you, but I could murder a good sleep on solid ground."
Rob elbowed Charlie in the ribs. "You're only so tired because you spent the entire day killing innocents."
"Oh yeah, Fiends are right innocent cunts aren't they? I bet they wouldn't murder you in your sleep. And they definitely wouldn't eat your corpse afterwards."
"You don't know that they eat corpses!"
"Oh come on, have you seen the teeth on some of those things? You're honestly telling me you don't think a Behemoth would have a crafty munch?"
"A crafty munch?"
Charlie pointedly ignored Rob. "Hey look, the bank."
"Oh, thank Yevon." David stood up and smoothed down his robe.
The Shoopuf ambled closer and the Hypello driver threw a rope-ladder over the side. He made a shooing motion with his two-fingered hands as Charlie eyed the ladder warily. It looked a lot worse going down than it had coming up. He swallowed, and tried his hardest to dismiss the sudden vision of himself toppling from the Shoopuf and then getting crushed to a pulp as the creature stood on him accidentally. That would just be embarrassing, he thought. "Oh fuck this shit," he proclaimed, taking firm hold of the top rung. He swung himself over the side of the basket with a hell of a lot more bravado than he felt, and then carefully climbed down the ladder, feeling for each rung and generally taking three times as long to get down as a proper man would.
"Charlie, I know you like looking at my arse, but would you get a sodding move on? I'm knackered." Rob was stuck above Charlie, who was crawling down the ladder as if it could disappear at any moment.
"Fuck off, Webb," Charlie snapped, alarmed at the sudden lack of a rung beneath his foot. He then proceeded to feel like a right twat as he realised that that was because he was on the ground now, and that would be why his ankles were getting wet. He stepped away hurriedly, giving Rob and David enough room to get off the ladder. "Add rope ladders to the list of shit I don't like," he groused.
David smiled. "I think we should start making a list of things you do like. It'd be smaller."
"Definitely." Charlie held his arms out as the driver lowered down their luggage. It swung dangerously on the rope harness, but he managed to catch it without hitting himself in the face. "Ugh, this is officially far too light. We'll have to come back here in the morning to stock up before Guadosalam."
"I don't think it takes that long to get there from here, you know." Rob took one of the bags off Charlie and swung it over his shoulders. It hung loosely off the strap.
"Well, maybe, but we can't live off air and grass. We're not Chocobos."
"Chocobos don't eat grass, they eat Greens. Chocobo care 101, Charlie." David laughed. He picked up the last of the packs - the lightest, simply because Charlie and Rob wouldn't have it any other way - and set off away from the river. Rob was right about the distance to Guadosalam, it was probably no more than a day's walk away, maybe two if they took it slowly. David thought that they would take it slowly. He knew that Charlie was enjoying being on land again, and if he was completely honest with himself, he wasn't exactly eager to be standing in front of Sin at Zanarkand. "Come on." He squinted at the sky, shocked to see how dark it'd become in the last ten minutes. "We're going to have to get a move on if we want to get camped before full-dark."
- - -
It didn't take them long to find a suitable clearing, which, on any other day, Charlie would be inclined to be suspicious about, but right now he just didn't give a shit. Rob had gathered some firewood while Charlie struggled with the tent fabrics, and then David set the wood alight with a few muttered words and a wave of his hand. Sometimes, Charlie wished he was magically inclined. It seemed to make the world a lot easier at times like this. But then he remembered the first time someone had tried to teach him a spell - a simple Water - and he'd flooded their home and almost the entire village, and he thought better of it.
The light from the campfire danced off the colourful tent fabric, and not for the first time, Charlie cursed the day they bought the bastarding awkward thing. "I swear, I am going to kill those Al-Bhed bastards for selling us this tent."
"You say that every time," David commented. He took hold of one side of the fabric and deftly swung it over the closest pole.
"That's cos it's true every time. If they made tents that were easier to put up, maybe I wouldn't have to issue death threats every time we want to sleep in it."
Rob sniggered. "You're just bitter because you're rubbish at manly outdoors stuff."
"Some of us aren't made to swan around a forest, hugging trees and being one with nature like namby pamby hippy dickheads."
A fact which I reckon some of us are bitter about." Rob spread his arms out and did a twirl, accidentally knocking into a tree as he did. "Ow. Fucking tree!"
"It doesn't love you like you love it, Rob. I foresee this relationship failing." David laughed. "But don't worry, we can find you a nice Ochu somewhere, eh?"
"Phwoar," Charlie said lecherously. "Nothing like a nice bit of vine action." He ducked as Rob threw a handful of leaves at his head. "Check out the buds on that!" He made an obscene gesture, and David guffawed. Charlie liked it when David laughed like that. It was one of the few times when there wasn't a kind of sadness behind his smile or a faraway look in his eyes like he was saying goodbye to every place they visited. He knew it was a Summoner's lot, but fuck, that didn't mean he had to like it.
- - -
Their tent was huge, in theory. But theories don't count for shit when there's three of you trying to cram in comfortably. Charlie had got used to waking up in the middle of the night to a cold spot where David should have been. Usually he left him to it - he knew that David liked his alone time - but tonight. No. Not after what he'd said about those dreams, which explained the nightly absences all too well. Not leaving you alone ever again, Charlie thought with certainty.
He blinked at the gloomy tent. Rob was still there, snoring like usual, and he could see David silhouetted against the fabric. The embers of the fire were still smouldering, and David was staring into them with concentration so intense that he didn't even notice Charlie coming up behind him.
Charlie cleared his throat discreetly, and David started. "I- I didn't see you."
"Is it the dreams?"
David nodded, turning his gaze back to the fire as if he was embarrassed to meet Charlie's eye.
"Fuck, David. Why didn't you tell me about it earlier?"
"And what exactly could you have done about it? It's not like we could go book to see a therapist for Summoners, is it? You've just got to fucking get on with it. What would they say, anyway. 'Oh don't worry Lord Mitchell, soon Sin will destroy everything and everyone you love and then you won't be alive any more to have horrible dreams.' Brilliant. I love a good prediction of doom. Nothing like it to really intensify those nightmares."
Everyone you love? No, don't mention it. It's probably not you. Who'd love someone with a face like a sackful of squashed toads? Charlie smiled grimly, and sat himself down next to David. He stared into the embers, willing himself to forget what he'd just heard and just be unselfish, for one night of his life. "Fucking therapists, who needs them." He leaned against David and tried not to pay too much attention to the fact that his thigh was pressed against David's, and that his shoulder was pressed against David's, and that he could smell the clean, familiar smell of him. "All they do is talk bollocks at you until you're so confused you agree with everything they say."
"Mm," David said. He sounded doubtful and slightly distracted as he continued to stare into the guttering remains of the fire.
"You have to sleep some time," Charlie said, softly. He felt like a prick for saying it, but it was true. What happens if we're ambushed by something big and you're too tired to summon? he wanted to ask, but he held back as David opened his mouth as if to say something.
A tiny noise escaped David's lips, almost imperceptible unless you were staring at him like a lovelorn teenaged puppy. He dropped his gaze down to his hands, which were clasped tightly in his lap and, in that moment, looked so fucking lost that Charlie couldn't stand it any more. Against every ounce of his better judgement he reached out and cradled the back of David's head with one hand, turning it so that Charlie was looking right into his ridiculous dark eyes. There was a look of intense bewilderment on David's face as Charlie moved in, his eyes flickering downwards and then back up again.
"Er," David said, a split second before their lips met.
Charlie dropped his hand like it'd been burned. "You know," he mumbled. "Just, er. Stay strong, yeah?" He shuffled sharply away from David, mourning as a rush of air replaced the delicious warmth where he'd been pressed against his shoulder.
"Charlie?" David looked even more bewildered than before as Charlie stood up with a fake cough.
"We should get Rob to nick you some Sleeping Powder next time we come across some Mushrooms," he said with false cheeriness. Oh fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. What the hell did you go and do that for you foetid excuse for a cunt? "I'm just gonna," He waved at the tent. "You know." Escape, his mind supplied. Escape like the cock-sucking coward that you are. Go on, go and pretend like nothing happened. It's better than rejection, isn't it? Better than seeing his look of disgust at being so close to your fucking potato face.
sai_salamander Class: Thief
Chapter: X - Of Camping
Summary: David Mitchell is a Summoner, Charlie Brooker and Robert Webb are his Guardians. This is their story. They take a different route to Yuna and Company, but it takes place around the same time, chronologically. There's also meetings with FFX characters, much about the Aeons and Fayth and how these are acquired and, I hope, lots of comedy &c.
Chapter Summary: Camping, and the joys of such outdoorsy pursuits. Also, some talk about dreams.
Characters/Pairings: Yuna, Rin, all the Aeons, FFX party, random OCs. No pairings at first; but it's gearing towards Brooker/Mitchell.
Chapter word count: 3353
Cumulative word count: 14,453
Rating/warnings: Whatever rating there is for massive bad language, cos these guys are sweary mofos, yo. And also, I think this bears warning for, at some point there may what you could definitely call gay sex.
The Moonflow. The roads were wide and the weather was pleasantly good. Charlie was enjoying the simple feeling of wind not tinged with salt. It'd taken him a day or so to lose the embarrassing rolling, bow-legged walk that Rob said made him look like he'd been buggered by a Flan. It'd also taken about a day for the Fiends to get wind of new people on the road, but by that time, Charlie was itching for a good fight anyway.
"I think being cooped up on all those boats did something to your mind," Rob commented, as Charlie beheaded a Garm for the fifth time that day.
"Didn't do shit to my mind," Charlie grunted. He wiped the blade of his halberd on the grass. "I just feel like killing some stuff, alright?"
"It's not as if the Fiends on here are challenging though, is it."
"I don't want a challenge, David. I want to mindlessly slaughter Garms for a bit. The Moonflow is fucking boring, and we've only been on it for two sodding days."
"Cheer up mate," Rob said. "We've got a nice ride on a Shoopuf soon."
"Yeah, that's always a laugh," said David. "And it's better than boats, at least."
Okay, so the Shoopuf was better than boats. It was all high up, and Charlie actually quite liked the gigantic creature they were riding on. The basket barely swayed at all, and the river was peaceful on all sides of them. It was growing dark - they would have to set up camp almost as soon as they landed on the opposite bank - and the Pyreflies were out in full force. Charlie liked Pyreflies. They were pretty, although he wouldn't admit that out loud, and their funny little song made him feel calmer, somehow. Pretty macabre, really, he thought. Those things are just dead people, floating around, getting in your soup. Colourful dead people though, he admitted. They were sort of like miniature comets, and their colours reminded him of Valefor's vivid wings.
The Aeons were curious things. At once terrifying and beautiful, Charlie never really knew how to behave around them. Do you treat them like animals, or venerate them like gods? Fuck knows. He mostly just tried to stay out of their way when they were exploding things with their laser beams or filling the immediate vicinity with an inferno and not to mention throwing the entire stormy sky down on top of a single Fiend's head.
He didn't get to see them very often though - David only Summoned when the need was dire. They'd only seen Valefor once, when David was testing their connection the day after finishing the Trials.
"So which Aeon is it next?" Charlie asked, although he already knew the answer. He was leaning on the side of the basket, watching the Pyreflies.
"Shiva," David replied. Charlie saw him shiver out of the corner of his eye.
"The ice bitch." Rob grimaced. "Could Ifrit help you keep warm in there?" Neither of them really knew what happened in the Chambers of the Fayth, but after the bother with Valefor, they couldn't help but worry about the remaining Aeons.
"He probably would help, yes. But I'm not sure how... effective his help could be." David didn't say it out loud, but Charlie knew he was thinking back to Valefor. "Another slip like last time and she could turn me into a rather fetching ice-statue."
"You won't slip," Charlie said. I believe in you.
"Well, I'm glad you're convinced." David sank his head into his hands, suddenly tired. "Is it far to the bank?"
Charlie stared through the mist-shroud and shook his head. "Nah, we'll be there in no time. Dunno about you, but I could murder a good sleep on solid ground."
Rob elbowed Charlie in the ribs. "You're only so tired because you spent the entire day killing innocents."
"Oh yeah, Fiends are right innocent cunts aren't they? I bet they wouldn't murder you in your sleep. And they definitely wouldn't eat your corpse afterwards."
"You don't know that they eat corpses!"
"Oh come on, have you seen the teeth on some of those things? You're honestly telling me you don't think a Behemoth would have a crafty munch?"
"A crafty munch?"
Charlie pointedly ignored Rob. "Hey look, the bank."
"Oh, thank Yevon." David stood up and smoothed down his robe.
The Shoopuf ambled closer and the Hypello driver threw a rope-ladder over the side. He made a shooing motion with his two-fingered hands as Charlie eyed the ladder warily. It looked a lot worse going down than it had coming up. He swallowed, and tried his hardest to dismiss the sudden vision of himself toppling from the Shoopuf and then getting crushed to a pulp as the creature stood on him accidentally. That would just be embarrassing, he thought. "Oh fuck this shit," he proclaimed, taking firm hold of the top rung. He swung himself over the side of the basket with a hell of a lot more bravado than he felt, and then carefully climbed down the ladder, feeling for each rung and generally taking three times as long to get down as a proper man would.
"Charlie, I know you like looking at my arse, but would you get a sodding move on? I'm knackered." Rob was stuck above Charlie, who was crawling down the ladder as if it could disappear at any moment.
"Fuck off, Webb," Charlie snapped, alarmed at the sudden lack of a rung beneath his foot. He then proceeded to feel like a right twat as he realised that that was because he was on the ground now, and that would be why his ankles were getting wet. He stepped away hurriedly, giving Rob and David enough room to get off the ladder. "Add rope ladders to the list of shit I don't like," he groused.
David smiled. "I think we should start making a list of things you do like. It'd be smaller."
"Definitely." Charlie held his arms out as the driver lowered down their luggage. It swung dangerously on the rope harness, but he managed to catch it without hitting himself in the face. "Ugh, this is officially far too light. We'll have to come back here in the morning to stock up before Guadosalam."
"I don't think it takes that long to get there from here, you know." Rob took one of the bags off Charlie and swung it over his shoulders. It hung loosely off the strap.
"Well, maybe, but we can't live off air and grass. We're not Chocobos."
"Chocobos don't eat grass, they eat Greens. Chocobo care 101, Charlie." David laughed. He picked up the last of the packs - the lightest, simply because Charlie and Rob wouldn't have it any other way - and set off away from the river. Rob was right about the distance to Guadosalam, it was probably no more than a day's walk away, maybe two if they took it slowly. David thought that they would take it slowly. He knew that Charlie was enjoying being on land again, and if he was completely honest with himself, he wasn't exactly eager to be standing in front of Sin at Zanarkand. "Come on." He squinted at the sky, shocked to see how dark it'd become in the last ten minutes. "We're going to have to get a move on if we want to get camped before full-dark."
It didn't take them long to find a suitable clearing, which, on any other day, Charlie would be inclined to be suspicious about, but right now he just didn't give a shit. Rob had gathered some firewood while Charlie struggled with the tent fabrics, and then David set the wood alight with a few muttered words and a wave of his hand. Sometimes, Charlie wished he was magically inclined. It seemed to make the world a lot easier at times like this. But then he remembered the first time someone had tried to teach him a spell - a simple Water - and he'd flooded their home and almost the entire village, and he thought better of it.
The light from the campfire danced off the colourful tent fabric, and not for the first time, Charlie cursed the day they bought the bastarding awkward thing. "I swear, I am going to kill those Al-Bhed bastards for selling us this tent."
"You say that every time," David commented. He took hold of one side of the fabric and deftly swung it over the closest pole.
"That's cos it's true every time. If they made tents that were easier to put up, maybe I wouldn't have to issue death threats every time we want to sleep in it."
Rob sniggered. "You're just bitter because you're rubbish at manly outdoors stuff."
"Some of us aren't made to swan around a forest, hugging trees and being one with nature like namby pamby hippy dickheads."
A fact which I reckon some of us are bitter about." Rob spread his arms out and did a twirl, accidentally knocking into a tree as he did. "Ow. Fucking tree!"
"It doesn't love you like you love it, Rob. I foresee this relationship failing." David laughed. "But don't worry, we can find you a nice Ochu somewhere, eh?"
"Phwoar," Charlie said lecherously. "Nothing like a nice bit of vine action." He ducked as Rob threw a handful of leaves at his head. "Check out the buds on that!" He made an obscene gesture, and David guffawed. Charlie liked it when David laughed like that. It was one of the few times when there wasn't a kind of sadness behind his smile or a faraway look in his eyes like he was saying goodbye to every place they visited. He knew it was a Summoner's lot, but fuck, that didn't mean he had to like it.
Their tent was huge, in theory. But theories don't count for shit when there's three of you trying to cram in comfortably. Charlie had got used to waking up in the middle of the night to a cold spot where David should have been. Usually he left him to it - he knew that David liked his alone time - but tonight. No. Not after what he'd said about those dreams, which explained the nightly absences all too well. Not leaving you alone ever again, Charlie thought with certainty.
He blinked at the gloomy tent. Rob was still there, snoring like usual, and he could see David silhouetted against the fabric. The embers of the fire were still smouldering, and David was staring into them with concentration so intense that he didn't even notice Charlie coming up behind him.
Charlie cleared his throat discreetly, and David started. "I- I didn't see you."
"Is it the dreams?"
David nodded, turning his gaze back to the fire as if he was embarrassed to meet Charlie's eye.
"Fuck, David. Why didn't you tell me about it earlier?"
"And what exactly could you have done about it? It's not like we could go book to see a therapist for Summoners, is it? You've just got to fucking get on with it. What would they say, anyway. 'Oh don't worry Lord Mitchell, soon Sin will destroy everything and everyone you love and then you won't be alive any more to have horrible dreams.' Brilliant. I love a good prediction of doom. Nothing like it to really intensify those nightmares."
Everyone you love? No, don't mention it. It's probably not you. Who'd love someone with a face like a sackful of squashed toads? Charlie smiled grimly, and sat himself down next to David. He stared into the embers, willing himself to forget what he'd just heard and just be unselfish, for one night of his life. "Fucking therapists, who needs them." He leaned against David and tried not to pay too much attention to the fact that his thigh was pressed against David's, and that his shoulder was pressed against David's, and that he could smell the clean, familiar smell of him. "All they do is talk bollocks at you until you're so confused you agree with everything they say."
"Mm," David said. He sounded doubtful and slightly distracted as he continued to stare into the guttering remains of the fire.
"You have to sleep some time," Charlie said, softly. He felt like a prick for saying it, but it was true. What happens if we're ambushed by something big and you're too tired to summon? he wanted to ask, but he held back as David opened his mouth as if to say something.
A tiny noise escaped David's lips, almost imperceptible unless you were staring at him like a lovelorn teenaged puppy. He dropped his gaze down to his hands, which were clasped tightly in his lap and, in that moment, looked so fucking lost that Charlie couldn't stand it any more. Against every ounce of his better judgement he reached out and cradled the back of David's head with one hand, turning it so that Charlie was looking right into his ridiculous dark eyes. There was a look of intense bewilderment on David's face as Charlie moved in, his eyes flickering downwards and then back up again.
"Er," David said, a split second before their lips met.
Charlie dropped his hand like it'd been burned. "You know," he mumbled. "Just, er. Stay strong, yeah?" He shuffled sharply away from David, mourning as a rush of air replaced the delicious warmth where he'd been pressed against his shoulder.
"Charlie?" David looked even more bewildered than before as Charlie stood up with a fake cough.
"We should get Rob to nick you some Sleeping Powder next time we come across some Mushrooms," he said with false cheeriness. Oh fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. What the hell did you go and do that for you foetid excuse for a cunt? "I'm just gonna," He waved at the tent. "You know." Escape, his mind supplied. Escape like the cock-sucking coward that you are. Go on, go and pretend like nothing happened. It's better than rejection, isn't it? Better than seeing his look of disgust at being so close to your fucking potato face.
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POINTS
Great chapter. I loved the last part in particular (gah, it was a really good flow of different emotions! ♥), but the entire chapter was an enjoyable read. :D