Auron’s Plan (chapter 9 of 49, 7605 words)
After working together to see off a surprise sinspawn attack, Braska and his guardians arrive at Guadosalam. Auron attempts to consult the Guado archives, and Jecht discovers the consequences of the Final Summoning.
Read here on praze.net or here on archiveofourown.org, or read the whole fic so far as a PDF or an EPUB.
The question of whether Auron “understands” Braska’s determination to take the pilgrimage will come up again later. As Braska says, Auron told him he did understand, and because they’re (completely platonic) friends (no burning chest feeling here), Braska took him at his word, forgetting that Auron actually lies quite a lot.
After Jecht claims not to “care that much about Auron”, there’s suddenly a big awkward silence, lmao.
Braska is kind of worrying about nothing when he thinks Auron’s refusal of white magic would endanger his health, given that Auron can obviously take potions instead and has in fact just done so. But Braska’s thoughts about Auron can be as irrational as Auron’s thoughts about him, to be honest.
Braska and his decisions made Auron’s heart ache; he wondered if he would ever know.
I mean … you could tell him!!!
He would give almost anything to protect him.
Emphasis on “almost”; the thing guardians are asked to do in Zanarkand is probably just about the only exception.
I wanted to include a little reference to Auron’s “we cut through” and “cut the ones that matter” somewhere. He does something overdrivey during this battle sequence, something like Shooting Star in its execution, but Banishing Blade in its effect. I could have gone for the full Banishing Blade sequence, but Jecht would definitely ask about Auron’s jug if he saw him drink from it, and I wanted to save that for later. Meanwhile, Jecht is using Cheer, in a rare moment of enthusiastically encouraging Auron.
Braska really thinks he’s the only person personally aggrieved by Sin, having somehow forgotten just how many other bereaved people would be out there. I suppose as far as wealthy people from Bevelle go, the likelihood of losing a family member is much lower than it is for the general Spiran population, but Braska actually really needs to read the room.
Yuna’s guardians all seem to believe that you really do see the spirits of the dead on the Farplane, but they’re from Besaid and have, as Auron will later put it, a less “sophisticated” view of the teachings than people from Bevelle do. Meanwhile, the Al Bhed clearly don’t believe it’s real at all, given that Rikku says:
You’re not really going to see the dead, more like your memories of them. People think of their relatives, and the pyreflies react to them. They take on the form of the dead person: an illusion, nothing else.
Nonetheless, it appears from the hi-five cutscene at the end of the game (the only time we see Braska as he really should look, I have to point out at every available opportunity) that a Farplane of some kind does exist, and there’s certainly one in FFX-2. When we see the lads on the Farplane in the hi-five cutscene, they are clearly reacting to what’s happening around them, but when we see people on the Farplane in Guadosalam, they all just hover in the air without doing anything. So perhaps the truth is somewhere between the Yevonite belief and Rikku’s explanation: there is a real Farplane somewhere and “dead people live there” (thanks to Tidus for this eloquent description), but the one we see in Guadosalam is just a place where there are lots of pyreflies and they helpfully take the shape of whichever deceased person a visitor happens to be thinking of. Braska therefore raises all three of these possibilities (the Al Bhed one slightly later in the chapter). I’d say that based on all the evidence we see in the game(s) and my troublingly Auron-like predisposition towards looking for a logical explanation for everything that happens in this universe, it’s the compromise that makes the most sense. Which I guess makes me a Yevonite from Bevelle … huh.
deciding that providing a calm and factual explanation might be the best way to stop Braska becoming too upset.
Oh, Auron … you sweet summer child … the best way to stop Braska becoming too upset is to give him a nice cuddle, I’m afraid.
Jecht has been fighting fiends for like a week without knowing they’re actually human spirits, which is mildly horrifying. Tidus finds out on Kilika, which is probably slightly earlier in his journey but still quite yikes, although he doesn’t seem too bothered by it.
Tidus mentions fiends occasionally turning up in Zanarkand, but I assume nobody there has worked out what they actually are.
Jecht really does have to keep reminding himself that he doesn’t care about Spira and just wants to get home, doesn’t he …
I can’t believe Auron’s passing up the chance to see his (mumble) on the Farplane just because Braska says he doesn’t want to go! What a simp. I also like how Auron’s imagined visit to the Farplane just doesn’t include Jecht at all, haha. This is the world he dreams of.
We learn from FFX or possibly some supplementary material that the Guado knew what Seymour and his mother would encounter in Zanarkand because they have relevant recordings in their archives. These archives must be pretty significant if they can tell us the truth about the Final Aeon (and apparently all the Guado know about it??), but you’d think the Yevonites would have wanted a piece of them too, or at least the maesters and their powerful allies would have wanted such controversial material destroyed. I think the only possible explanation for this secret’s never having got out involves the following: 1. the Guado are very insular and don’t trust humans; 2. the upper ranks of Yevon are too arrogant to believe the Guado have anything that valuable; 3. there’s some kind of reason why humans aren’t able to access the spheres beyond just “they’re not allowed”. 3 will be explored more in chapter 34, but the others seem to be consistent with what we know about the Guado and Yevon.
The Guado’s conversion to Yevon was presumably around the time Seymour was born; Seymour is seven years younger than Auron (lol), so Auron probably remembers the dispute over the records from his early childhood. Not to be incredibly crass, but it’s equivalent to the two big “current affairs” memories I have from 2001, which are a. the number plate change in Great Britain and b. 9/11.
If Auron really wants something, he’s quite capable of being insincere in order to get it: he’s no longer done the Yevonite prayer bow in any meaningful way since the court of Yevon humiliated him, but if it can be used as a means to an end, he’s all for it. Of course, he also has threats and violence as an option, which is what he naturally goes to after the begging doesn’t work.
Auron definitely experiences the most physical injury in this fic out of the three lads … this is purely because I like him so much, sorry.
“Well, they do say Jyscal wants to improve human-Guado relations,” Auron pointed out.
In the game, Seymour says, “My father worked to foster friendship between man and Guado.” Braska obviously thinks this is “admirable” because it’s similar to what he was once trying to do with the Al Bhed. There is an obvious similarity between him and Jyscal, which will come up in chapters 33/34.
Not only did Jecht not know fiends were human spirits, he’s managed to come this far without finding out how the pilgrimage ends! Braska has very coyly been talking about things like “my decision” rather than actually saying “I’m gonna die, and I’m gonna love it”; and it’s obviously not something Auron wants to spend much time discussing. The outcome of the Final Summoning has also not been mentioned explicitly in the narrative, so for the hypothetical reader unfamiliar with FFX, this is going to be as big a surprise as it is for Jecht.
I think there’s something very sweet about how [in my interpretation] Auron was apparently completely dedicated to the teachings but made friends with the infamous disgraced ex-missionary anyway. 💕
Braska reluctantly admits that he’s had a nice evening and isn’t actually wallowing in misery 100% of the time.
Auron has not been having the best time recently, and while he’s been managing to deal with everything pretty well (So Far), it probably would help him to have someone to talk to about certain things. Braska is not really able to fulfil this role (particularly because at least 70% of what Auron needs to talk about is “I don’t want Braska to die”); Jecht obviously isn’t the person Auron wants to confide in either, certainly not at this stage, but he’s the only other person around, so when he appears to be mildly interested in hearing about Auron’s anxieties, it’s not going to take that much persuading for Auron to let a few things slip.
Auron genuinely believes he can find a way to save Braska. As Jecht points out, it would be the first time in a thousand years, but Auron is so used to being successful in everything he does that the idea of failure is currently inconceivable to him, even after what he’s been through recently. Meanwhile, Jecht is entirely unconvinced.
Between this and learning about the fiends, Jecht has made a few unwelcome discoveries about mortality recently! I’m sure he’s going to deal with this in a mature manner, and not get completely wasted and not attack any large animals.