A Promise (chapter 10 of 49, 8954 words)
Despite some mishaps as they approach the Moonflow, the travellers manage to cross to the south side. Jecht resolves to change his ways.
Read here on praze.net or here on archiveofourown.org, or read the whole fic so far as a PDF or an EPUB.
He pulled his blanket over himself and lay there, staring at the ceiling, until his anger had dissipated enough to let him drift off.
I have a very strong mental image of this, so strong that I actually had to get it out by drawing it, the latest in my sporadic series of very poorly skilled Auron doodles … if I remember to take a picture of it when I’m in the office I’ll add it to these notes.
Braska almost certainly had to bribe the priests as a way of convincing them to raise Yuna in an adequate environment, as well as merely paying for her keep and her education. He’s from a pretty wealthy background, certainly wealthy enough to have been able to spend at least the last three years not in any kind of paid employment without any particular financial consequences.
I always thought it was odd that Auron referred to Braska’s gil as “travel money”, so maybe Braska uses the phrase a couple of times … it somehow seems more believable originating from him.
The summoner’s privilege takes many forms, and a free night’s stay at a good Yevonite inn is one of them.
Jecht’s antics are actually quite useful for Auron in a way, because they’re one of the few things capable of distracting him from whatever is going on when he looks at the Moonflow (cough). Not that he is at all inclined to behave charitably towards Jecht as a result, of course.
I have no reason for giving the shoopuf black blood, I guess I just thought it was cool and edgy.
Auron is very physical with Jecht here 😏 but it’s just because he’s going into Strong Soldier mode, honest …
“We’ll manage, Auron” was originally “We’ll be all right, Auron”, but I thought that sounded a bit too optimistic for Braska 🙃
Auron’s adverse reaction to the water seems to have receded for now, but it will very much be back, along with the gradually revealed (but perhaps already guessable) reason for his behaviour.
I actually don’t know how anyone can’t ship Auron and Braska when the “panning across the Objectively Beautiful Moonflow and coming to a stop when the recording focuses on Braska” scene is canon.
Auron generally talks in a fairly normal way, but based on “watch your tongue, knave”, it seems he prefers to use archaic language when he’s disparaging people, for some reason. I’ve taken this to mean he believes swearing is improper. I think the sort of language Jecht uses does exist in Spira, but Auron thinks it’s not appropriate to go around saying fuck all the time, while Braska is probably just too refined.
Auron’s explicit reference to the fact that Jecht attacked that shoopuf makes it quite clear that he’s filming him in order to shame him, I think, as does “That’s on the record.”
I edited the paragraphs describing Jecht’s realisation quite a lot. The reference he canonically makes to his wife and Tidus shows that he’s thinking about the pilgrimage in terms of how it reflects on how people see him in Zanarkand. I suppose he’s realising that being on the pilgrimage and defeating Sin is something worth doing, but perhaps not yet that it’s worth doing for its own sake. But there’s no question that this is a step in the right direction, and he seems to be remorseful enough about having disappointed Braska, even if he’s too used to Auron getting angry with him to care much about being in his fellow guardian’s good graces. Braska, of course, is ready to forgive Jecht’s transgression as soon as he makes his promise; Auron obviously isn’t.
He frowned in the direction of the dusty ground. “Never said anything about being pure either – I certainly wouldn’t want to make that claim.”
A tiny glimpse of Auron Trauma here.
I can’t not spell whiskey with an e, having lived in Ireland for nearly a decade.
Despite Auron’s insistence that he doesn’t want to waste any time thinking about Jecht in a way that is at all forgiving, he seems quite happy to have a few conversations with him in the later part of this chapter … hmm.
Jecht is incredulous when he hears that people in Spira don’t tend to go on holiday (rip all those pleasure cruises), but where exactly do people from Zanarkand go on holiday – other parts of Zanarkand?? I suppose the city is pretty large, so maybe that works.
People in Bevelle are probably a lot less afraid of Sin than the average person in Spira, so it’s not as if Auron isn’t used to people not having to consider Sin at every waking moment, but completely forgetting it is probably a step beyond that. He’ll have spent a fair amount of time outside Bevelle anyway, with the corps, so he’s probably met a lot of people whose lives are more affected than those he knew at home.
Jecht instantly loses the power of rational thought when confronted with his worst nightmare, a crying man.