A Fine Place To Live (chapter 19 of 49, 5403 words)
The travellers arrive on Besaid, and immediately form strong opinions on the island. After paying a visit to the temple, Auron joins his companions on the beach, where he and Jecht have a more candid conversation than he had expected.
Read here on praze.net or here on archiveofourown.org, or read the whole fic so far as a PDF or an EPUB.
It’s the start of the Besaid section! We’ll be spending a few in-universe days here, much to Auron’s disappointment and Braska and Jecht’s delight (most of the time anyway). Jecht will soon be getting a glow up (in combat terms). Braska will soon be having a breakdown.
But the thought of Yuna growing up to parrot their lies was sickening.
Um … sorry Braska!
I think my depiction of Auron as bothered by the hot weather on Besaid is inspired by the fact that he doesn’t canonically go there during Yuna’s pilgrimage; I wondered if he might have a reason for avoiding it. Unfortunately for him, we’ll be here a while.
taking his shoes and socks off as well would have been still more welcome, Auron reflected, but that would seem too much like he was taking a leaf out of Jecht’s book, and he didn’t want the soles of his feet getting all dirty and calloused like Jecht’s were.
Auron remains determined not to do anything that could make it seem like he’s trying to be like Jecht.
Braska taking down the fiends by whacking them with his staff is inspired by Yuna being able to do the same if she revisits Besaid late in her pilgrimage.
Braska just immediately becomes enamoured with Besaid. His request that Auron take Yuna there seems very spontaneous to me; they’ve clearly only just arrived and he’s already decreed that it’s “a fine place to live”. I think this was part of what motivated my depiction of him as more spiritual than practical – obviously very different from Auron. He has a weird, almost fetishistic perception of Besaid, a kind of “noble savage” idea where he subconsciously believes that because the islanders are sheltered from the complexity of mainland society, they somehow attain some kind of moral purity.
“This conflict” seemed like a weird thing for him to say apropos of nothing, so that’s why I decided he could have been thinking about his struggle with the authorities and how Yuna’s position is influenced by that. It seems from this that even canonically, the animosity towards them on the part of the temples has grown over the course of the pilgrimage: since they left Bevelle, we’ve gone from “no-one expects us to succeed” to Braska referring to a “conflict”.
This sphere also influenced my depiction of Braska as generally quite oblivious to others’ struggles, as Auron is very obviously affected by what he says, and he seems not to notice at all!
He needed to save Braska, he reminded himself, not waste time longing for the impossible.
Because saving him is completely easy and possible … yeah ok, Auron.
Auron’s experience of praying making him feel better when he’s ill is based on my own experience of playing the piano. The idea that his combat skills reflect the strength of his religious devotion, on the other hand, is based on medieval stories about King Arthur and his knights, and the concept that duelling was a way to settle moral disputes because whoever was favoured by the divine would end up winning.
As Auron isn’t a hugely proficient reader, he has almost certainly learnt the teachings and any associated liturgy from memory. It’s probably quite common among the less educated people of Spira.
We get a wee cameo from a certain someone who will make another couple of appearances in the next few chapters … as I’ve said before, I only mention characters’ eye colour when it’s relevant.
I read a fic once where Braska sits on the shore with his feet dangling into the water (the Moonflow, in fact) and has a big cry about how he misses Yuna. I think this was probably part of the inspiration for my depiction of his general demeanour, but I actually needed him not to feel sad in this scene for once.
Jecht still finds Auron notably attractive, but he plays it down when he suggests that the two of them engage in some sexual activity. The “it’d be a shame if we didn’t bang” was inspired by a text a friend of mine received after a conference once (although in true British style the term used there was “bonk”).
Auron’s standards must be slipping, given that he obeys Jecht’s order to “get [his] ass over here”!
Braska is generally a very trusting person – too trusting, as we saw at the Moonflow – but after years of clashes with the Yevonite authorities, his goodwill certainly doesn’t extend to them. It’s typical of him to be so concerned about Yuna being fed lies by Yevon but at the same time determined to present her with the rosiest possible view of the pilgrimage. Being less driven by logic than Auron is, he doesn’t see the contradiction.
using Auron’s shoulder to steady himself as he did so.
More classic Braska behaviour.
“You worry too much,” said Jecht dismissively.
wakka-how-little-you-know.mp3