Hot Stuff (chapter 28 of 49, 7691 words)
Jecht persuades Auron to attend his blitzball matches while Braska embarks on his third day of summoning practice. Later, Jecht receives a gift from the Psyches, and refuses a talk about his emotions.
Read here on praze.net or here on archiveofourown.org, or read the whole fic so far as a PDF or an EPUB.
For once Jecht has an excuse for his enormous appetite.
The blitzball sphere isn’t really a significant enough body of water to cause Auron any problems, but it’s still notable that Auron is choosing to spend the day watching Jecht’s game of his own free will … I’m not sure he would have consented to this even a few days ago.
In the game we see a few Ronso walking around in places like Luca, so I suppose it might seem odd that Jecht hasn’t seen any before. This is, however, before Kelk is made maester, so I think it’s conceivable that the Ronso may not be as integrated into wider Spiran society at this point. Kimahri is a trailblazer I guess!
The description of their playstyle is based on how they actually play in the game, in what is surely the least frustrating of the four tedious ultimate weapon quests (Auron’s, Yuna’s, and Rikku’s don’t count as tedious in my mind somehow).
I’m assuming that in “real” Spira the matches last a bit longer than ten minutes. (Canon compliance: destroyed.)
Auron after Jecht points out that he just complimented him: shit, dial it back!
I don’t think Auron was ever an actual Al Bhed hater – he probably wouldn’t have become Braska’s friend if he was at all bigoted. But he surely would have joined in with his peers’ casually anti-Al Bhed remarks in his younger years, in the same way that when I was at secondary school in the second half of the 2010s people would have said things like “that’s gay” without actually being homophobes in most cases. (iirc, I don’t think I ever did that myself, but then, Auron isn’t actually a member of the, er, Al Bhed community.)
Auron definitely no longer identifies as a Yevonite by this point, although he hasn’t told anybody.
Braska doesn’t get physically injured in this fic very much; I tend to leave that for Jecht and mostly Auron, but here’s a rare exception.
Whether Braska really makes “no pretence at being above anyone else” is debatable, I suppose: in some ways he definitely does, given than he’s convinced that his suffering is uniquely painful and that he deserves special treatment as a summoner, but it’s kind of balanced out by the fact that he simultaneously believes that nobody really cares about him and he’s better off dead.
I’m sure Girl spoke the common language very well, but the image of Braska going to Rin and being like “teach me how to say romantic things in Al Bhed so I can impress my girlfriend” is very cute. And then I guess Rin says “ok, but you teach me about the retail price index in exchange” and Braska is like ????.
I don’t really know why Auron is so uninterested in blitzball given that he’s a big exercise bro … I guess he thinks sport is an immature thing to invest oneself in when one could be getting involved in properly high-stakes combat instead.
I didn’t notice the significance of the “Auron guiltily films a gull” sequence until I came across this Tumblr post. It’s a telling lapse in Auron’s usual rationality – I’m sure he doesn’t usually set much store by old wives’ tales, but at this point he’s starting to get desperate to save Braska by any means necessary.
and for Braska to understand at last that giving life a chance would be –
It’s another averted title drop moment.
I find it absolutely impossible to believe that the lads would have made it this far through the pilgrimage without Jecht already having gone on about his blitzball career for hours. I also don’t think this particular sphere recording can have taken place on the first half of the journey given how cordial Jecht and Auron seem to be with each other. The only explanation seems to be that Auron is attempting to make a weird joke when he says “Didn’t you say you had blitzball in your Zanarkand”, and that his non-sarcastic tone of voice is accounted for by Braska choosing that moment to turn up and distract him, as well as by the general possibility of in-game lines coming out sounding a bit strange.
Auron: “Jecht’s … crying? Wow, this is fascinating! Let me see!”
Auron doesn’t want to go for a meal with Braska because he doesn’t want the two of them to get into a potentially romantic situation, while Braska assumes it’s because Auron sees doing the duties of guardianship as more important than going for a nice dinner with him even though it might be the last chance before he potentially kills himself – further convincing Braska that it’s ok to end his life because nobody really cares about him that much. What he doesn’t realise is that this possibility doesn’t even enter Auron’s mind, because if Braska does decide to end his life rather than continue the pilgrimage, Auron will obviously marshal everything he can to ensure it doesn’t happen. Just as he still doesn’t really believe Braska will die as a result of the Final Summoning, he also doesn’t really believe Braska will actually kill himself at this point even if he wants to, because he’s sure he can convince him otherwise, should he need to. It’s going to be an uncomfortable process, though, so he’d obviously prefer Braska to decide to keep going of his own accord, giving Auron a bit more time to find something, and hoping that defeating Sin will be enough to let Braska see the point in staying alive.
I needed Jecht to be carrying a blitzball in preparation for a later chapter, so now we see the extremely convoluted reason for his having one.
Shoutout to Mr ADT who is, like Auron, “the kind of guy that irons his boxers”. Meanwhile the last time I touched an iron was 2014 … I guess I’m the Jecht in our relationship.
I’m not sure how possible it is to “shrug aggressively”, but I feel like if anyone can do it, it’s Jecht.
The fact that Auron is awkwardly offering Jecht some emotional support is another sign that he actually doesn’t mind him very much by this point … of course, Jecht isn’t going to take it, he’s not some kind of lady.