From A Dream (chapter 38 of 49, 8684 words)
The journey continues to the Calm Lands, where Auron continues to be ill at ease. An encounter with another summoner forces Braska to come to a realisation about his aeons, while Jecht finds something he hopes will help his companions relax.
Read here on praze.net or here on archiveofourown.org, or read the whole fic so far as a PDF or an EPUB.
Things are getting really bad for Auron! Not as if I don't say this every week!
I don't know if Yevonites actually have any jurisdiction over how the Al Bhed are allowed to run businesses, but I suppose it's probably likely that they do.
I feel like Auron would have mounted a more forthright defence than "hey" if he was in a better state. He probably manages to be quite threatening with the "you should leave" though. The clerk is quite unruffled by the whole exchange (she just says what she thinks really), whereas he's somewhat affected by it.
I think the part in FFX where the party get to the ridge above the Calm Lands and Yuna lies on her back on the grass is quite striking. It's a bit different for Braska and his guardians because they don't enter the area from the same direction (I imagine the Bevelle road as being at the top left corner of the Calm Lands, where the malboros are iirc) so they don't get that panoramic view – and Braska is too dignified to lie down like that. But I wanted to give a similar sense that they're entering the final stage now.
maybe it would be useful to have such an effective calmative on tap.
Kihel intensifies.
Auron kissing Braska and then addressing him as "sir" … yep, completely normal relationship here!!
I don't know when Belgemine's pilgrimage took place, but presumably it was some time before Braska's. She maybe hasn't started roaming the entirety of Spira yet at this point, and that's why she doesn't encounter them until now? Or alternatively she only seeks out those she believes to have a reasonable chance of defeating Sin and she's only just come to that conclusion about Braska, while Yuna's talent is obvious much earlier.
I've been playing a lot of Pokémon recently (including on evenings this week when I should have been editing this chapter huhuhu) and now the idea that the elemental weaknesses match up in pairs is bizarre to me. What do you mean it's not rock-paper-scissors? Madness.
Braska used to be very keen to complain to Auron, and really everyone I suppose, when he wasn't feeling well. The fact that Auron keeps talking about pausing the pilgrimage has finally convinced him to tone it down a bit.
Braska didn't give it much thought; he had something more important to consider.
More important than the wellbeing of your best friend slash lover … ouch.
Auron's fears that they wouldn't be able to keep going were unfounded, he thought.
Yes, Braska, "fears" is definitely the right word here …
Regarding the Zanarkand police not caring about people smoking ethycil, I took inspiration from the fine city of Bristol. Ethycil is obviously a thinly disguised weed proxy with a couple of changes (pink smoke etc.) to account for the fact that I'm not sure whether the effects it later has on the lads are scientifically accurate. The one time I tried smoking weed it seemed to have no effect on me, so everything at this point is very speculative, haha.
I think I've been making it quite clear that Braska's headaches have something to do with his new relationship with the aeons, but perhaps not that they are deliberately causing them. They just want to be really sure that he finishes the pilgrimage, and they've decided the best way of doing that is to cause him pain as a way of controlling him. It's not really necessary, but they haven't quite gathered that he's set on sacrificing himself anyway – just as they haven't realised Braska has misinterpreted all their hints about "your guardian" being important for saving Spira.
"Everything's been kinda heavy" is about as close as Jecht would ever get to acknowledging that both his companions are struggling.
Adrolem is ethycil in Al Bhed – my reasoning is that Yevonites don't really talk about it because they consider it a banned substance, so the Al Bhed word is used more often, even in the common language. I was considering doing something similar earlier when the Al Bhed receptionist was telling Auron she didn't mind that he was gay, like "oh, we have a non-derogatory word for people like you, it's kyo", but twice in the same chapter seemed a bit heavy-handed. Anyway, I was pleased to be able to devise a sequence of letters that a. sounded reasonably like the name of a drug without actually being one and b. could be converted into Al Bhed while remaining pronounceable.
Having Braska produce water for Auron to drink at this point makes me wonder whether Braska's been supplying the drinking water for the three of them all along. The idea that a mage could make their own drinking water supply seems unrealistic somehow (because magic overall is realistic?? ok). Maybe it's a particularly draining thing to have to do.
"I want to give Spira that hope. I want Yuna to grow up in peace. I want Auron to be happy and free."
And you want Jecht to make it back home, right? Right?
Braska's like "thanks for helping me briefly, Jecht. You don't really do it at any other time and that's fair enough because you're not my super special friend like Auron is. I guess you don't really care about me (as I deserve) and I don't really care about you either. Fair enough, see you tomorrow."