All The Way (chapter 40 of 49, 7304 words)
Auron continues to struggle, and finds himself in a deeply unpleasant situation on the arrival of a group from Bevelle. Considering his plans at last, he resolves to ask Jecht for help one more time.
Read here on praze.net or here on archiveofourown.org, or read the whole fic so far as a PDF or an EPUB.
Oh we're over 300k now! There was a point in the editing process where I wondered if I should try and make the whole thing shorter so it was more like standard novel length, and then I thought, it's not as if I'm trying to publish this as an actual book, so actually I'll just keep all the self-indulgent "here are some sad guys" stuff.
The Yevonite narrative is presumably that summoners who fail are killed by fiends or turned back by the fayth for not being pious enough, but given that there have only been three High Summoner so far by this point, that doesn't seem like it necessarily accounts for all of them. I think it would make sense that by this point in the journey there are quite a few summoner's parties that end up turning back, like Zuke and his guardians – to say nothing of those who get to Zanarkand and learn the truth.
There are different schools of thought about how Auron becomes a 35-year-old old man, but the theory I prefer is that he ages very rapidly as a result of (cough) what happens after the Final Summoning. This seems to be backed up by the fact that it's old Auron that we see addressing young Tidus in one of the latter's flashbacks. So the grey hair scene here isn't the start of a gradual process, but rather a one-off that maybe plants in Auron's subconscious the idea that he deserves to go grey, once his appearance perhaps becomes more malleable. Putting it at this point in the narrative is of course also a way of making him have an even worse time, just as a wee treat. I think he is used to taking quite a bit of pride in his appearance, so this is something he finds upsetting. I, on the other hand, was very excited to find my first grey hair a couple of years ago.
"my friend", ok, Braska.
Braska's willingness to talk about Girl is, as the narrative says, a sign that he's doing quite well at the moment, although this is mostly because of the aeons' help, and, as Auron has already noted, probably also because he's thinking about how soon he's going to die and how great that is.
You remember the Code of the Guardian, says Auron, don't you? Yeah, mentioned once in passing in FFX with Capital Letters as if it refers to some specific official thing that has huge significance in Spiran society but then never comes up again? Yeah, that.
This warrior monk ambush scene is meant to be a bit of a parallel to the scene where the Yevonite authorities send the big machina to fight Yuna's party just after they leave the Calm Lands; it's the last place where Yevon can really try to get to them before they enter Ronso territory and while the Ronso are Yevonites too, they have their own moral code and command some level of respect due to their guardianship of the sacred mountain, and, of course, big horn pierce. So it makes sense for this to be the point at which Kinoc brings out his deadliest weapon, which happens to consist of three thoroughly indoctrinated young men.
I don't think Auron has needed to kill humans before; the Yevonites aren't in such terrible conflict with the Al Bhed that they actually fight them, and anyone deemed to have broken the law so severely that they require execution is simply sent to the Via Purifico. I'm sure Auron has fought and incapacitated troublemakers in his career, but not to the point of actually ending their lives.
Braska when Auron does something for him: oh, thank you so much, darling, you're so strong and handsome, let me kiss you.
Braska when Jecht does something for him: thanks, I guess?
Auron when Jecht does something for him: leave me alone, I'm thinking about Braska.
Hedra is [that language I speak] for October – I had no idea when I wrote this chapter that it would be the first one scheduled for posting in October, so that was fortuitous. I also don't know why I called a man from Zanarkand October, but there we are.
Jecht is probably not quite lubed up enough, but I didn't want to drag out the scene with undue realism.
[Jecht] was determined to hold himself back until Auron had come first: Auron was younger and less experienced, after all.
Jecht emptied into him, and he released in turn
Sorry, Jecht!
My headcanon is that Auron tends to enjoy being told what to do during sex despite his preference for topping, but at this point he just wants to be as passive as possible. Also with Jecht's insistence on being stereotypically masculine all the time, he'd probably have been offended if Auron suggested they do it the other way around.
Ah yes, totally normal to kiss your friend/unrequited (??) love interest on the forehead straight after having sex with your other friend. At least Jecht seems to have a healthy attitude towards relationships, apart from the one-sidedness of his open marriage – definitely more than can be said for the other two.