spira_rp | Just a legend, cold words on a page

Just a legend, cold words on a page

So far things had been going as well as could be expected, if not a little better. The hotel staff, well used to discretion as they were, had been adept at keeping an eye on matters. There had been some tense moments in the restaurant, if the waitstaff were to be believed, but they'd resolved themselves peacefully.

It was a good sign. Ila were the only clan to have come from outside Khamja, and their history with Skite had been less than amicable. Their inclusion was probably the biggest risk Ignis had taken with his recruiting, but when it had come down to it they needed powerful healers, and if they came accompanied by tough fighters then so be it. That they could control themselves, and that members of Khamja didn't feel the need to break into violence around them, was only a bonus.

Everyone had stayed within the hotel's confines for the day. Ignis had been glad of that. One or two had been less than pleased with the request, and some had been less pleased again regarding the issue of tags, but he was reasonably sure he'd managed to placate most of them.

He read over the notes he had for their itinerary while he waited for everyone to assemble in the conference room. He'd been up late last night trying to get a somewhat friendly member of the Kingsglaive assigned to the survivalist training, to no avail, and he'd been up early again this morning ensuring everything was in order for the swift processing and manufacture of the tags they'd require so their esteemed guests didn't have to remain confined to the hotel for too much longer. His third can of Ebony of the day sat half drunk by his chair. After so long on the lowerworld and rationing his supply to make it last he'd consumed enough in his first two days back in Insomnia to give himself the jitters, but he'd become accustomed to the caffeine once more rather quickly.

The conference room was one of the hotel's largest. A huge, oval table occupied the centre of the room, and a projector hung from the ceiling, directed to a huge blank wall where it could be used for presentations and displays. Ignis had no intention of using that, but he did prefer the table set up of the room. It would be interesting to see who chose to sit next to whom, for one.

Ignis took a drink from his can and cast his eye over his papers again. Weaponry, clothing, chocobos, food, potions, ethers, camp supplies, water, medical supplies, communication; they weren't going to be heading to Pulse quickly with a shopping list this long and involved, but at the very least the time could be useful. They needed to ensure everyone was capable of surviving in the event they became stranded with nothing.

It was just a pity they'd refused to give him Nyx for that purpose.

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"That's as may be," Nel replied, looking at Tayuya. She understood why Tayuya was objecting; she was one of Orochimaru's underlings, a Ninja from one of the hidden villages. They were trying to teach a grandma to suck eggs. Ulquiorra too, she knew, and likely a few of the rest of them didn't need to be trained to do something they'd been doing for a while.

"But I think it'll be useful for us to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, as well as improving our own skills, since we're going to have to work together when we're up there."

"Is it necessary for each of us to have all the skills?" Lumi asked, looking at the two at the front. "Or will an array between us be sufficient?"

He didn't lean forward with a show of attention, or flop forward like Tayuya in complaint, he just sat there, waiting. He was as patient as a crocodile, so he had no real need to get the meeting over with quickly. He preferred to get all the information before embarking on anything, even if he could work on the fly.

"I can hunt and field dress," he said and then indicated Marluxia to his side. "Marluxia here is an expert botanist. Together we can deal with camping. However, I lack the capacity for making fire without tools -- I am not able to use magic, but there are a few around this table who can produce more fire than we'd ever need unless we wanted to raze large potions of Pulse to the ground. Neither of us are healers, but we can bandage an injury and use potions. Marluxia can make them. I would prefer not to be camping unnecessarily before the trip, I have other matters to attend to before we go, but I'd be happy to demonstrate my relevant skills."

Edited 2020-02-10 20:56 (UTC)

"I'd find it useful," Ienzo said, giving a shrug of one shoulder. "I don't know much about camping, my skills lie outside of living rough."

As a researcher, would-be historian and Alchemist, Ienzo was never going to have been invited for his abilities to survive the wilderness. He'd be more useful where civilisation had fallen and only half because, as somebody who had contributed to more than one of those, he considered himself well-versed in it.

"I can build a shelter using Alchemy," he pointed out, "and I'm adept enough with magic to be able to make enough fires to make up for the lack of magic in others, not that it will be necessary with people like Tayuya and Axel in the party, but I could use the lessons, I don't mind admitting that. I daresay Even and Szayel are in much the same position."

He turned to see Even's grimace and held his smirk down.

Levi listened, looking from person to person as they argued or agreed. It made sense for them to voice their views on the subject, he wouldn't want to be tested by some perfect strangers to see if they were good enough at the jobs they were hired for, but it didn't mean they weren't going to have to back up their claims.

"You won't all need to be experts at everything," he said, addressing that issue right off the bat. "You just need to be assessed on first aid, camping skills and all the other shit, to make sure enough of you have a spread of abilities so you won't die. You don't all need to make fire, you don't all need to be able to skin a wolf, you don't all need to know what plants you should avoid putting in your faces, just enough of you, so that if you split off for separate recon, you won't end up with three skinners and nobody who can set up a tent, or two healers and one person who can start a fire, but nobody that can kill anything to cook over it."

Levi couldn't expect everybody to know how to do everything. He couldn't make fire either, not without a match, and healing was way outside his realm of expertise. A lot of Glaives would judge the white-haired one for not being able to use magic, but it hadn't stopped Levi getting the highest kill-count out beyond the wall. The only reason Nyx was the face of the Kingsglaive was because he looked better on the posters.

And he wasn't a criminal conscript, that too.

"Speak for yourself," Szayel replied, throwing a glare in Ienzo's direction. "At least I can butcher an animal." He might not look like he could, but he had trained as a surgeon and when it came down to it, it wasn't that different. "And my first aid skills go without saying."

The rest of it, on the other hand, might be more of a problem, and he got the distinct impression Nel was going to insist he go on this ridiculous training camping trip because of it.

"We're not all eager to cuddle up to Ulquiorra for warmth as we sleep on the floor."

Ulquiorra didn't blink, didn't move except to utter a single Rozarrian word in response.

"Trash."

Yylfordt made the effort to ignore his brother trying to needle Ulquiorra and the creepy Ryoka. Their whole thing was creepy, and weird, and thinking about it too much made questions pop into Yylfordt's head that he didn't want to have answered. Like whether or not Ulquiorra was that colour everywhere.

Maybe his skin got darker in places. But the pink bit of his eye was still pink, so maybe--

And that was about the point that Yylfordt shivered and made himself latch on to the actual topic. "All right, pnu," he said, "so we go and do this camping test, and then what?"

Ignis straightened up a little in his chair. He hadn't realised he was beginning to slouch, and he corrected himself, crossing one leg over the other as he did.

"Following Levi's assessment that you're capable you'll be fitted for protective clothing and any other such equipment you may require. The ships will be stocked with supplies, including chocobos, and then we will be on our way." He afforded the group a smile. "Those of you that are pilots we will meet with nearer the time to discuss the flight plan. You know the individual capabilities of your ships better than anyone here might. Currently we anticipate departure in approximately six weeks, although that is of course pending Levi's assessment and any delays due to weather or supply concerns."

"Sounds fair," Grimmjow said.

The pilots had a boring job, but fortunately, it wasn't his. Yylfordt would be required to attend that particular dull meeting, alongside Lumi and whoever it was that had the helm in Clan Ila. He'd be happy to take that particular day off, that was for sure.

Fortunately for Levi, it wasn't his problem, either. He didn't care much for airships, and they weren't his area of expertise. Everybody had one, of course. Which brought him on to the next point.

"I was told by Ignis that some of you have specific areas of expertise," he said, eyeing them all.

Well, it was an exploration mission. They didn't just want pilots and hunters, or they could have recruited from the groups of Hunters that lurked about in the Lucian wilderness, unaffiliated with the Kingsglaive, but a regular source of gossip, help and supplies all the same.

"I'm going to guess you're one of the scientists," he said, pointing Szayel out. His haughty demeanour and terrible choice of frames suggested as much. "Who else has a niche purpose on this trip?"

Szayel pressed his fingers to his chest in mock offence. "Scientist, and surgeon, if you want to be precise," he corrected. And Szayel did want to be precise.

If he was being honest, which he wasn't, he hadn't really wanted to come on this wretched exploration mission in the literal arsehole of hell but Aizen had been quite firm that the Arrancar in attendance would benefit from their specialist medic joining them.

That, and Szayel really needed to get away from things for a while. True, this was no holiday, but it would keep him occupied.

Aerith put her hand up, feeling like a little girl in school as she did. "Healer," she answered, "and botanist." It felt strange to identify herself that way, but it was true. "I don't mind doing my bit in a fight," she added, with a flash of a smile, "but," she looked from Lea to Saix, and back again, "some people are more cut out for that than me."

Marluxia leaned forward slightly so he could see Aerith properly. He'd witnessed her healing abilities, if through Ulquiorra's eyes, but her identification of herself as a botanist was a surprise.

"That makes two of us," he said, smoothly, giving Aerith a smile. "Botanists, I mean." His eyes flickered between Axel and Saix before he added, "A pleasure to meet you. I'm sure we'll enjoy working together."

"Does circus ringleader count?" Nel asked, under her breath but loudly enough for Even to hear.

More clearly she said, "I'm another one of the healers, but I'm a front row combatant too, when I need to be." She could also put down each of the Arrancar that was here, although Ulquiorra was getting to be more and more of a concern in that department, especially with his new abilities these days. Fortunately, he wasn't the type to need a clip upside the ear, unlike Grimmjow and Yylfordt.

Saix shifted in his chair, watching Marluxia like a dog watching someone it didn't like come too close to its front door. Marluxia was trying to rile him, of course, him and Lea. The annoying thing was that it was working.

"Alchemist," Ienzo repeated.

It was an uncommon enough ability, mostly because Alchemy took a ridiculous amount of research to get started in, let alone reach a level of proficiency where the skill was anything approaching useful.

"I don't need a circle to perform it, either."

That wasn't something he'd generally admit to regular people, but they were all weird here and that fact was going to come out sooner than later in front of the people who didn't already know.

Lumi decided that he wouldn't open his mouth about his ability to speak and read pretty much every Spiran language he'd come across so far. Others had been gifted vast elemental power, to the point where they were fairly compared to Aeons, others had been given such a close connection with a certain Class that it practically defined them, like the Berserker.

Lumi had nothing like that. He was just good at language. It seemed like a raw deal, but there wasn't anybody else alive who could control his ship, or read any of the menus. He expected that the language on Pulse, even if only the written was left, would prove to be a similar conundrum to them all. He supposed he'd have to come clean about it sooner or later, or at least pretend he'd learned it from the ship, but he wasn't about to declare it now.

Instead... "I'm a marksman," he said. "I use a variety of ammunition, including Hollow rounds. I can kill Daemons."

Edited 2020-02-12 00:56 (UTC)

"Some of the rest of us can kill them too," Grimmjow added to that.

He didn't have any special skills. He wasn't an Alchemist, or a Scientists, or a researcher, or even a healer. But he did have a Zanpakuto, even if it was a Hollow one, and the nice things about Hollows was that they devoured their own.

"Me, Apache, Yylfordt, Szayel, Nel, Kadaj and Ulquiorra," he said. "We can all do it."

"I would be one of the other scientists," Even said, shortly.

He wasn't a surgeon, or a healer, but he was a scientists all the same. His other main area of expertise was utterly destroying things with ridiculously high level Ice magic, but he doubted that would be any more useful to this conversation than Axel pointing out that he specialised in setting things on fire.

"I don't have anything as special as all that," Fang said, listening to the scientists and the Hollow killers and the fancy healers, "but I know a thing or two about Gran Pulse. That should be useful enough."

Edited 2020-02-10 23:18 (UTC)

"I'm a kunoichi," Tayuya piped up, sticking her chin sullenly into her palm and giving Levi a flat look. "And a Summoner. So's Kadaj," she added, with a gesture in the silver haired prick's direction. "You don't have Summoners here, so let's just say we can call on some big magical monsters to fight for us." She gave a shrug. "The flying ones are useful for scouting too."

Yylfordt raised his arms and laced his fingers behind his head. "I'm Al Bhed," he answered, with more than a hint of cockiness. "Machina is my thing," he added, with a grin and a look across the table at Ienzo. "I do airships and Ienzo's automail."

Saix buried his amusement at Fang's explanation of her skills. Of course she wasn't about to declare the truth of her origin here and now, but she had a knack for understatement. She knew more of Pulse than Ignis could, and Ignis spoke as if he was something of an authority.

He didn't bother to chime in with anything for himself. He was a berserker, and a blue mage. His skills were all combat based, and in this room that didn't set him apart.

His head turned when Yylfordt mentioned Ienzo and automail, his brow furrowing. Zexion didn't have---

Hadn't had. He looked over to Zexion.

"Quite the cross section, as you can see," Ignis said, oblivious the ripple of surprise emanating from the back of the table. "You can count myself in among the healers, of course," he added, addressing Levi, "and Lumi has done some work on translating the old tongue which should serve as a starting point for further decrypting."

He glanced at Lumi and smiled. "Noctua is really a stunning craft. I'm sure there's a lot we can learn from and about her."

Levi listened to them all.

"Good," he said. "That will all be useful if you're there for a long time."

He had to admit, Ignis had got himself a decent crew together. They could do with another healer or so, but if they were to be believed, at least one of them could make potions, something he knew to be no easy feat, and one of them was even trained a surgeon, which was a rarity in the field, but useful in a way that a simple healer couldn't always be, skilled or not. That they were most warriors in the simplest sense was a given.

He was glad the pink-haired girl had clarified was a Summoner was, though. He wouldn't have known otherwise because she was right -- they weren't a thing in Lucis. He wasn't any the wiser what an Alchemist was, of course, but he figured it was some sort of scientist, so he didn't ask because he didn't care. One thing stood out though.

"What's automail?" He asked.

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