The Journey Begins (chapter 2 of 49, 7454 words)
Braska says goodbye to Yuna and the three travellers head into the forest. Jecht starts to learn about some of the ways in which Spira differs from his home.
Read here on praze.net or here on archiveofourown.org, or read the whole fic so far as a PDF or an EPUB.
Jecht didn’t appear massively drunk in chapter 1, but I assume that if he drinks to excess every day, he probably seems fairly sober even when he isn’t. His lack of memory of what happened the day before is partly because he was drunk, but partly because everything that happened was a bit hard for him to believe.
I’ve seen the thing Auron wears under his robe given various names; I think it looks a bit too sturdy to be a mere vest, so I’ve gone with cuirass in this fic (and probably in others I’ve written recently). It’s probably a bit unrealistic that Auron would wear one of these over his upper body with no more normal garment underneath it, but nobody in Spira wears clothes that make any sense, so.
On a similar note, I’ve chosen to use the word robe rather than haori for what he wears over it: I see the logic in using Japanese words to describe certain objects in the FFX world, but I think it would give a slight flavour of … exoticism? … which I don’t really want to convey here, so I’m using standard boring Western terminology at all times (with “futon” in the previous chapter perhaps a very slight exception). Also, the instructions that come with the Play Arts Auron figure released back in 2006 call it a kimono, so I actually don’t think anyone knows what’s going on!
Auron is still very determined to seize on every bit of proof he can find that Jecht is morally lacking; Jecht has forgotten a promise, and Auron is definitely going to hold this against him as long as he possibly can. Jecht is still fairly goodnatured towards Auron; he’s enjoying the thought of winding him up, but mostly in a friendly, lovable-rogue-type way. His reasonably positive attitude will wane soon, though, given that Auron is insisting on being an arsehole to him.
It’s fun writing Auron’s lines in a way that reflects the person he is at this point in his existence. Many of the things he says are sentences that ten-years-later-Auron would never catch himself repeating, but “We wait here” is surely a perennial Auron line.
I took quite a lot of inspiration from DFFOO (R, and I cannot stress this enough, IP) during the early stages of writing this; at one point in the game, Braska says that Yuna was “quite the tomboy” at the time of his pilgrimage, which I liked. That sets her up for being enamoured with Jecht’s blitzball antics, I think. Meanwhile, in a flashback in FFX, Jecht tells Tidus, “I usually charge for lessons, you know.”
While Braska doesn’t openly engage in prayer or any other Yevonite activities, Yuna has been brought up to pray just like anyone in Bevelle. This is partly because Braska and (cough) thought it would be safer to raise her as a Yevonite, at least until she’s old enough to make up her own mind about faith (at which point Braska would definitely have done his best to convince her to stop believing in it, ha), but partly because she’s spent the last three years being raised in a very religious setting. More on this later probably.
Jecht suddenly whips his sword out, although he presumably wasn’t holding it while he demonstrated the Jecht Shot … er, that’s just how JPRGs work.
Being an Al Bhed sympathiser and a bit of a maverick, Braska often uses the word “machine(s)” instead of “machina” to show respect, but at this point he wonders if Jecht might be more familiar with the latter, given that it’s more widely used by Yevonites. Auron tends to use the word “machina”, but not with any particularly malicious intent, just because it’s what most people say. I think using “machines” regularly while not being an Al Bhed would normally be seen as very formal, which Braska can additionally get away with because he’s posh.
Braska is slowly starting to realise that Auron and Jecht may not yet be the best of friends, but he’s too preoccupied to try doing anything about it. As the person who decided to bring Jecht along, the onus is partly on him to make sure everyone gets on, and he kind of knows it and feels a bit guilty about introducing this complication to their pilgrimage, especially when Auron’s been having a hard time. But he’s feeling bad enough already and can’t really bring himself to think about how he might try to improve his guardians’ relationship, so when they start arguing his best option is usually to try ignoring them before it makes him too upset.
“This is no pleasure cruise” is such a stupid line because does Spira, the place where everyone lives in fear of being killed by what is essentially a sea monster, really have pleasure cruises?? But it’s a canon line so I have to keep it in, alas. I think it’s even weirder that Tidus also mentions pleasure cruises after watching this sphere … maybe they’re a big thing in Zanarkand for some reason? Maybe they were a big thing in ancient Zanarkand, and hence still are in Tidus and Jecht’s Zanarkand, and also people who live in Spira know about them somehow and are like “oh yes, back in the day everyone was so privileged that they got to go on pleasure cruises, they didn’t know they had it so good”??
“Auron had the edge over him” yeah Jecht as if you didn’t spend last night speechlessly staring at Auron’s chest, ok.
“Too many goodbyes,” he said instead: it was true in many summoners’ cases. “People think twice about leaving.”
Not true in his own case is what the narration is implying here, but it would be a bit embarrassing to follow this up with “I myself really want to die, though, Jecht.”
Braska is quite used to people disrespecting him, and even thinks he deserves it a lot of the time, but as soon as someone is mean to Auron, he Will Not Tolerate It.
The fiend that attacks the lads first is an Iguion, although fortunately they seem to avoid being silenced and petrified on this occasion. Jecht would be the best placed to take it down, but he has no idea what’s going on at this point. I’m not sure how to interpret a loss of HP in terms of physical strength/health, so on this occasion I’ve just gone with some kind of nebulous injury that just makes Auron feel weak.
Jecht (like Tidus) learns to fight pretty quickly! He’s generally a very quick learner – you’d have to be if you were suddenly isekaid into Spira, I think.
I’ve read fics where magic exists in Zanarkand, which is definitely a valid interpretation, but I’ve gone with the idea that magic is exclusive to Spira and it’s yet another thing for Jecht to be confused by. The “no human could” is a FF6 callout. Jecht is starting to realise at this point that Auron is actually not being very nice to him, and having initially tried to get on with him (as incompatible as they seem to be), he’s getting a bit fed up with it at this point.
Braska is the only person who could get away with saying “such a special child” and have it sound sincere.
Jecht comes from somewhere with a generally pretty enlightened attitude to sexuality, but he nonetheless defaults to assuming people are heterosexual, even though he isn’t even heterosexual himself.
Braska found it easy enough to mention that he was “wed to an Al Bhed” the previous day, but having someone else remind him of his wife when he wasn’t expecting it is something he finds it a lot harder to cope with. “It’s just the two of us [at home]” is also not really true, seeing as Yuna hasn’t been living with Braska for a few years, but he’s definitely not about to start explaining that in his compromised state.
As Auron isn’t much of a reader, he’s pretty good at storing large amounts of information in his mind; Jecht, who comes from a very literate culture, is the opposite.
This chapter has made a couple of semi-veiled references to a plan Auron has, which will be discussed more fully in chapter 9. Again, he thinks very highly of himself, because until recently, everyone else also thought very highly of him!
Just as Jecht didn’t want to show how enamoured he was of the forest, he also doesn’t want to make it obvious when he’s wounded. Zanarkand’s culture, especially within blitzball circles, has a lot of toxic masculinity, and Jecht’s belief is that men should be tough (hence his attitude towards Tidus). So even when he’s badly injured, his instinct is to keep quiet about it, although as he realises, this won’t get him very far in a world where fiends can ambush him at any moment.
I’ve interpreted white magic/healing as follows: potions heal some damage, but magic can achieve more if the wielder is competent (which Braska certainly is). They’re usually less effective the longer you leave it after the damage is done, so with serious injuries it’s important to get to them quickly. Mages who use a lot of white magic in a short time will find that it exhausts them, and in Braska’s condition he tires more easily than usual anyway, so he has to be careful, especially if he’s intending to petition for an aeon, which is especially draining.
As for black magic, my interpretation of MP in this case is that using too much of it can give you a headache. (This particular affliction will become, er, relevant later in the story.) I’m depicting Braska as competent in both types of magic, but with a slightly greater affinity for black – this is influenced by his appearances in FF mobile games, where he mostly uses offensive spells. Realistically, I think he needs to know both for the pilgrimage, because Auron doesn’t have a magical bone in his body (affectionate) and Jecht certainly doesn’t have any magical abilities to start with. Braska is quite a bit older than anyone in Yuna’s entourage too, so I think it’s realistic for him to have a more varied skillset than she and her guardians do.
Braska’s spheres for Yuna are the vehicle through which Jecht tells her all his Zanarkand stories – she seems to know a fair amount about the city by the time she meets Tidus. The fact that she remembers this ten years later also shows that she probably paid the spheres a lot of attention: she loved her father and knew these would be some of the last opportunities to hear from him, so she would have! Braska tends to present a much more optimistic view of things for Yuna’s benefit than what’s actually been happening (when he can bring himself to), just as he tried to put on a brave face while she spent the evening with him.
Jecht is pretty drunk by this point, and the fact that he’s just going on about Zanarkand shows that he misses it a lot, even if he’s not going to say so!
I’ve taken the liberty of making the night fiends (whatever that’s supposed to mean) both less powerful and less numerous, so having one person keep watch ought to be sufficient for seeing them off. Otherwise Auron would lose a lot of sleep, which he does not … yet … do.
Auron’s reaction to seeing Braska’s hair is … not a normal reaction for a man to have to his platonic friend, but Auron has known for a long time that he feels more strongly about Braska than that. (I did consider having Auron realise he has feelings for Braska during the pilgrimage itself, but I eventually decided he’s already well aware.)
Pyjama headcanons: Auron wears a white vest and black boxers to sleep in. Braska wears an old-fashioned nightshirt, which is probably a tradition of the noble families of Bevelle or whatever. Jecht wears a jockstrap or something idk.
“Of course, my lord,” said Auron. “Anything.”
Mark one notch on the “Auron has it bad” scorecard.
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