Back To Life (chapter 49 of 49, 6117 words)
Bevelle celebrates the Calm. Auron and Jecht have one last conversation.
Read here on praze.net or here on archiveofourown.org, or read the whole fic as a PDF or an EPUB.
I'm playing around with chronology more than in previous chapters with the start of this – I may have said this in the notes on the last chapter, but until the Final Summoning they all covered either a full day or about half a day, while afterwards they started to stop matching up with that strict division, partly to show how the passing of time was becoming less relevant to Auron and also, as he approached the end of his life, more difficult for him to perceive. This time, the first section of the chapter happens at the same time as the final paragraphs of the previous one, and the second section actually happens before it.
We do see two shoopufs in either the original game or the sequel (I forget which). This reference is another two fingers to the audio drama tbh.
It's now time for the famous game, Count Kinoc's Lies. Perula's a bit less willing to get on board with his bullshit because she just thought Braska was such a terrible summoner (which is, of course, in some ways true). Given that she knows the truth about him and will be harder to convince otherwise than most Yevonites, she's probably considered a risk to the stability of Yevon after this interview and I guess it's likely that she'll be executed. So that's macabre.
"Enough to exchange a friendly greeting" – I'm sure Kinoc never acknowledged Braska if they crossed paths.
"He was a very pious man … devoted to Yevon" – obviously completely fictitious.
"There couldn't have been a more deserving High Summoner" – Kinoc clearly doesn't believe this.
"He only ever collaborated with them on Yevonite business" – and, er, procreating with them.
Perula didn't know Braska's guardians at all (apart from knowing about Auron's disgrace), so she just completely invents this characterisation of Jecht as "a kind and gentle man". But this is what gets picked up on by the people of Spira, who have very little other than this interview to go on, so that's why Yuna describes him in that way when she talks about him with Tidus. It isn't too far from her own memories of him as well, of course, but she only met him in person once, and he may have been kind to her on that occasion, but I'm not sure "gentle" springs to mind based on drunk!Jecht's actual personality.
The presenter is trying to be a good Yevonite but also loves the gossip.
"He's a very dear friend of mine" – I mean, a friend that you hoped would die and then tried to compound his existing trauma by putting him in a fight to the death with his own apprentices, sure.
"I've no doubt that's why he was keen to play his part in the pilgrimage" – I don't think Kinoc ever worked out that Auron was actually in love with Braska, and I'm sure Auron never told him he was trying to save him, but Kinoc certainly knew they were good friends and that Auron chose to be Braska's guardian because of that.
"Sir Auron is a modest man" – hahaha are you joking.
"and faultlessly devoted to Yevon" – this one at least is true, as far as Kinoc knows.
I don't know what Kinoc thinks is the real reason that Auron hasn't shown his face, but I'm sure he's relieved not to have his frenemy back in Bevelle upstaging him again. But he wants to make it seem as if both guardians survived the Final Summoning in order to ward off any suspicions about what might be going on in Zanarkand, as does everyone else with important positions in the Yevonite hierarchy. Jyscal has been seen to be particularly supportive of Braska during the pilgrimage, and the Guado have a fractious relationship with Bevelle anyway; Kelk was already beginning to suspect foul play even before Braska gained the Final Aeon, hence his summons to visit Kinoc a couple of weeks earlier. So the solution that Kinoc and the rest of the inner circle came up with was bribery: they would make both the non-humans maesters in exchange for the reassurance that they wouldn't cause any trouble, and specifically in Kelk's case, that he would appear on this broadcast and confirm that both Braska's guardians were accounted for on the journey back from Zanarkand. And such power was difficult to turn down, so both of them accepted, even though morally scrupulous Kelk is having some misgivings.
Anyway, that's another point for the Kinoc's lies tally.
"This all came out just before he was due to be condemned" – entirely fictitious. The Crusader who they blackmailed into confessing to his sexual activities with Auron has probably also been executed by this point.
"Nobody has ever survived that place" – as discussed previously, a lie, which he goes on to repeat ten years later.
"Very upset indeed" – if by upset you mean elated.
"I miss you" – pull the other one.
So that's a final score of twelve lies directly stated by Kinoc, plus a couple more that he forced Kelk to tell on his behalf. Impressive!
I bet Jimma's annoyed to be stuck in Luca reporting on the blitzball when everyone else gets to go to Bevelle and celebrate! I mean, he does really like blitzball, but probably not as much as he likes knowing Sin's not going to be around for a while.
Kinoc's official position is "second in command", which I've taken in this fic to mean "of the warrior monks and the Crusaders", with the implication that when he later becomes maester, he's then first in command (as it were) of both, lining up with the game. This is the same position Auron would have got if he had been promoted without any trouble, but due to being from a noble family, Kinoc has also entered Mika's confidence on taking up the role, which wouldn't have been the case for Auron. Even if he had succeeded in becoming second in command without the sabotage campaign that did occur, he still wouldn't have been accepted as readily as Kinoc has been.
He had spent the whole pilgrimage denying the reality of death, after all, and now that extended even to his own.
I was so delighted when I realised I could make this thematic link, ngl.
I've probably discussed this before, but my interpretation of Auron's unusually aged appearance as a 35-year-old man is that he looked like that as soon as he came back from the dead, rather than aging at some kind of accelerated rate over the ten years following. I think it makes sense to say that his appearance reflects how he feels about himself now, and, look, it's more delicious angst.
His hair has grown a bit over the course of the pilgrimage.
I'm not sure what would have happened if Auron had gone straight back to Bevelle looking like that. Maybe people would have started suspecting he was unsent. Kinoc and his mates would no doubt have begun a campaign to a. destroy all spheres containing images of him from before the Final Summoning and b. convince the entire population of Spira that Auron was born with only one eye, actually. It's tragic. But no doubt his humbling deformity was what inspired him to nobly play his part in a summoner's pilgrimage, and what better summoner to ally himself with than the great Lord High Summoner Braska, the most pious of them all.
There seems to be a trope in fics about unsent Auron that he doesn't need to eat or sleep because he's not actually alive. As usual, I want to do the opposite of what everyone else does, and also, he keeps saying in the game that he's tired, so it sounds to me like whatever sleep he's getting actually isn't enough. I like the thought that he's just exhausted all the time as a side effect of having to contravene the laws of nature by his very existence. Also … yet more angst of course.
"Sounds kinda sexy."
Jecht!! You've never spoken a truer word!
I'm not sure what's happened to Auron's sword, but I find it hard to believe he still has it. The question of course is how he manages to get it back by the time he meets Tidus outside the blitzball stadium. Maybe he spends the entire ten years in between learning swordsmithing so he can make an exact replica. It's not as if there's much else he needs to do (apart from getting some therapy, I hope, and having guilt-free sex with as many men as he can find … and checking in on Tidus every so often).
I don't know if Rin necessarily would have reported him, although if there's some kind of cash reward for handing people over to the unsent task force, then it's a given.
I don't think Jecht would be able to speak directly to most people's thoughts in the way he does to Auron, but they're both part of the same vaguely defined supernatural category now.
Besaid is probably the second least appealing place to go to as far as Auron is concerned, lol.
"This could be our last chance –"
Indeed!!
"I ain't like other people – I'm not real."
I enjoyed being able to switch to a more standard grammatical form to convey Jecht's sincerity here.
This is the first time Auron calls Jecht his friend – it's far too late!!
"You trust anyone in Spira with this shit?"
This is a parallel to how Auron decided after the Final Summoning that he wasn't actually going to go back to Bevelle and try enlisting anyone's help before going to confront Yunalesca; but it also made me think, right enough, who in Spira should be trusted with this shit? Oddly, Rin springs to mind, so we'll have to start raising a subscription.
Auron says in the game:
Ten years ago, I honoured Jecht's last words, and travelled to Zanarkand. I planned to stay there, watching over you. But when Sin attacked Zanarkand that day, I changed my mind. Outside the dream world, life can be harsh, even cruel, but it is life. He wanted you to have a shot at life. I saw it in Sin's eyes. That's why I brought you here, to Spira.
Tidus' shot at life is of course much less central to the fic than a few others: the shot at life Jecht gets when he travels to Spira and leaves that same dream world; the shot at life Auron is constantly hoping Braska will take; and the shot at "life" Auron himself is given that will lead to him connecting the threads and fulfilling his promises at last.
I love how Auron sarcastically says "great" when Jecht tells him he can take him to Zanarkand.
Apparently it's a big day for saying things he's never admitted out loud before.
Had to get an "infinite possibilities" reference in there for the Auron x Jecht shippers.
Jecht has gained some kind of omniscience now that he's an aeon – he knows Kimahri has found Yuna, and he can tell what's going on at his home.
Auron hasn't lost his impatience. He never will.
Auron, darling, I've been putting you in this particular blender for some time now, but you're free at last! Go and get that therapy and sex, and we know how the rest of the story goes.