lazybox | World hoppers gonn' world hop

World hoppers gonn' world hop

Jumping between worlds never stopped being interesting. Starting to get a little lonely, maybe, but certainly never boring. Even calm worlds had something new to discover, although it was probably a good thing that he tended to run into other "survivors" of the Tower on this trip.

He sure would have appreciated one of those now, even if just so that he had someone to crack jokes with about monsters coming out at night. That eclipse had started not long after he came here, and was the apparent reason behind the insanity around him; dark monsters popping out everywhere, and an imbalance in the world that was sending the First Fonon into a berserk state, or at least so it seemed to his perception of things.

It was making finding enough of Sixth Fonon to do anything kind of a pain in the ass. At least he could use the Seventh to duplicate any of the others, now, and had enough of an ambient cloud of them to do what he needed. There didn't seem to be a naturally occuring source of them in this world, so he was stuck with what he'd brought with them and the few he could make with artes himself. Learning that had been enough of a challenge, thanks.

He had, eventually, made it to a town, to be promptly greeted by wonder from the townspeople. He heard the phrase "powerful Adept" tossed around in his vicinity a few times, and well - at least that gave him a starting point. So he pulled a barmaid to the side and asked about Sheba and Felix, wishing he could remember the names of their other companions.

The woman had stared at him, but after a bit of coaxing, she pointed him in the direction of some ruins outside town. And really, he shouldn't be surprised, because it was Sheba and she was always up to her neck in trouble. Sure enough, the small blond figure is exploring as usual, a weapon in one hand - it's a familiar sight, even if they've both aged a few years.

Or more than a few years, in Sheba's case, given how time seems to slide off her. And there's no telling if she's the Sheba from the Tower, but... He clears his throat, stepping into sight behind her.

"For the record, I think you're a little too old now for me to be doing your laundry."

The worst that could happen is that she zaps him for being crazy, after all, and it's not like it would even be the first time.

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Between the near-constant darkness and the creatures that seemed to thrive on the shadows, Sheba was just a little on edge. Certainly she could handle them, but she'd already had to bail out one well-meaning "rescuer" who had seen a "poor defenseless little girl" out here alone and had decided to play the hero. Her would-be rescuer was now back at the nearby town's inn and was likely to stay indoors for a week, and she'd resumed her explorations.

Over the past few years she'd come to realize that there was very little in modern Weyard that would point her towards the answers she so desperately craved - her best clues thus far had come from long-forgotten legends, so she'd begun by revisiting some of the older places she'd explored with Felix, Jenna, and Piers. Had that really been thirty years ago, she wondered? They hadn't held the answers then and they still didn't now - but there were other ruins in Weyard, other remnants of older civilizations.

It wasn't at all uncommon to find her deep within the ruins of some ancient civilization or another, these days, and while the Grave Eclipse definitely posed a bit of a hindrance, her Psynergy had kept her safe so far - in more ways than one. Where Isaac had learned to sense life from miles away, Sheba had learned to read messages on the wind.

She was turning towards Asch before she even heard his voice, preparing a Djinni even as he spoke. The wind was screaming, This man is not of this world!, and Sheba reacted on instinct.

"Haze!"

She glowed, just briefly, before vanishing into a haze of vapors. When they cleared, she was gone.

Moments later, her voice came from a good distance away - from the sound of it, from the top of a crumbling column. Her tone was incredulous.

"...Asch?"

After she spoke, she flickered back into view, crouched at the top of the column with a wary expression on her face. This wasn't the Tower - her mind wouldn't be playing tricks on her... but it had been so long. How had he come to be here now, of all times?

And then she disappears. Asch sighs slightly, shaking his head as he crosses his arms - then again, it's better than getting zapped.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you never convinced Luke to wash your clothes, so who else would I be?"

It's said with a grin towards her position on the top of the pillar - before she can reply, he's already coming over and starting to climb up the old-fashioned way. One thing about adventuring, you never really go out of shape. It's only a few moments before he's peeking over the ledge at her, which also gives her a good view of the choker on his neck - a leather-and-beads mock-up of the Tower's collars.

"Really," he mutters, hanging there for a moment with his elbows propped over the side of the column, "Do you greet all your old friends by running away these days?"

"I can't believe you still remember that," She murmurs, following his progress up the column. She raises an eyebrow as he hangs there, a little bemused - was he showing off? Maybe. Or maybe it was just more comfortable for him that way.

At his question, though, Sheba rolls her eyes.

"Most of my old friends don't sneak up behind me like that," She says. "They know better by now. You're lucky I ran instead of just blasting you - I've gotten much better at casting Spark Plasma since the Tower."

Her gaze travels down to his neck, lingering on the choker. If the fact that he had recognized her wasn't enough to indicate that he'd been to the Tower, that would have been. It's not exactly identical, but it's similar enough that Sheba can't help the slight chill that creeps up her spine.

She met so many great people there and she wouldn't trade those friendships for anything - but she still sometimes found herself dwelling on some of the more unpleasant parts of her sojourn there, and it was more than a little disturbing...

"How could I forget?" He shrugs as best he can while dangling before pulling himself the rest of the way onto the column. "And it's not my fault - I have to remember to actually make noise these days." Kind of comes with the territory, sound fonon and all.

He sits with his legs dangling over the edge, leaning back slightly to look at her. "Besides, you of all people know that a few thunderbolts aren't going to stop me. I've been through a lot worse." And yes, his hand wanders towards that choker for a moment before he pointedly puts it back on top of the column and rests his weight on his arms to lean back.

"That's true," She says, her gaze following his hand and lingering on the choker again. If anything, the Tower did prepare them to face almost any of the horrors within their own worlds - this eclipse and the abominations it spawned included.

She shifts a little to give him a little more room to get himself situated - they were both sturdy, but it certainly wouldn't be fun for one of them to fall. If they were really unlucky, a monster would appear right as they hit the ground.

"Don't get me wrong - I'm glad to see you. It's good to see a familiar face." Sheba studies him for a few moments. "But... how did you get here? And why now?" There had been so many times over the last thirty years when she would have given anything to see some of her friends from the Tower, and it would have been a lie to say that her thoughts didn't stray to Asch and how he might be doing quite often. Her own research into how to move from world to world had been inconclusive, though - possibly because of a lack of technology and a lack of understanding about Alchemy to make that possible - and so she hadn't been able to come up with any real way to go looking.

At her question, he tilts his head back and looks at the ceiling. "Well, that's kind of a long story..." He pulls one hand up to rub at the back of his neck before closing his eyes.

"The short version is that I've been manipulating my internal fonons across the gaps. The long version involves dying, ascending to the fon belt as an aspect of Lorelei, and a lot of other weirdness related to the Seventh Fonon." Some of which he's not even sure he could explain, if she asked. And even if he could, he's not sure he would - as close as they'd been at the Tower, the idea of sharing that experience with anyone but Luke is just too strange.

(Some things just didn't change.)

"As for when... I can go back to places I've been before, by finding the same frequency again, but when it comes to going somewhere new, I don't have a lot of control over it." A bit of a shrug, before he pulls a hand through his bangs, looking mildly frustrated. "I tend to show up near other people from the Tower, but that's about it. I can't control it any more than that."

"Dying-- You didn't turn into a fonon ball again, did you?" She narrows her eyes at him. Though it was true that some of the memories in the Tower had been false, she'd come to realize that the artificial ones had only fooled them because every implanted recollection was, ultimately, within the realm of possibility.

His explanation did a little to alleviate her confusion - luckily, though, she knew a way around that. A faint smile and an even fainter presence at the back of his mind would probably tip off Asch that she was reading his mind to get a better idea of what he was trying to explain.

(Some things really didn't change.)

"Maybe it can't be completely controlled, but it's still pretty useful." She shrugs. "I wonder what it is that causes you to appear near other people who have been to the Tower, though?"

Maybe some residual effect from the collars, or rather, the strange liquid within them... Some sort of leftover side-effect from whatever had been done to them to keep coming back again and again and again, no matter how horribly they "died" in that place, maybe?

"...however it works, I'm glad it brought you here."

"Should I demonstrate?" It's said in a mostly joking tone, but yeah, he feels that nudge at his mind and what he's saying is one hundred percent serious. He chuckles slightly. Yep, same old Sheba. "It's honestly easier to jump the gap when I don't have to worry about which fonons go where, so it's helpful for that, at least."

Plus, the body he'd been returned to didn't really reflect his real age, once you considered how long he'd been at the Tower. Being able to manipulate his body this way let him fix that little bit of strangeness, at least.

"It might have something to do with the shared memories, given the nature of the Seventh Fonon..." Memories, sound, the whole shebang. It's part of him and he gets it, but not in a really explainable way. Asch just grins at Sheba instead of following through on that line of thought. "I'm glad, too."

"Please don't," She says, but she's still smiling and there's a bit of a teasing lilt to her voice. "I like being able to talk to you without having to constantly read your mind." She nods thoughtfully after a moment, though - she supposes it would be easier to get around like that without having to worry about keeping everything in the right place.

She returns his grin before sliding off the side of the column and nimbly landing on her feet.

"There's a lot of things I've wanted to show you!" Sheba smiles sheepishly, bringing up a hand to rub at the back of her head. "It's not really the best timing for sightseeing, but... it's like you said. You've had worse, and I have too."

A moment passes, and then she purses her lips. "And besides... there's people working on ending the eclipse, supposedly. So this shouldn't be going on for too much longer."

"I can always reform my body again afterwards." He follows her down with an easy jump; it's nothing compared to the buildings and things he's had to jump off in the past. "Kind of ironic, really - I used to hate Luke so much for being a replica, and now I'm indistinguishable from one myself."

His steps are light as he follows her, and as silent as he'd mentioned earlier. "I'd love to go see some of the places in your world, eclipse or no. It'd be nice if it was over, though. I can't produce any Seventh Fonons on my own with things out of balance like this..." Which means any fonons used for healing have to come out of the supply composing his body, which... pain in the ass, really. He frowns for a moment before turning back to her and smiling.

"Try not to get horribly injured on the way, alright?" Yes, someone's morbid streak is as strong as ever. From the look on his face, you'd think he was planning a party.

Sheba stops to consider that, and then she sighs. "Life is funny that way, isn't it? But you're still you, so isn't it okay?" Maybe it was a little strange, coming from her - she was still herself whether she knew where she came from or not, and yet she was still trying to find her home thirty years later. But to her the two things weren't really comparable.

"Hey!" She makes a mock-angry face at him, puffing her cheeks out a little. "I don't get injured that often. I'm fast, and I've only gotten faster since coming back here. It's hard for these creatures to land a hit on me before I blow them away."

Admittedly, though, her track record wasn't the best. If she wasn't falling off lighthouses and making brunettes tow her to shore, she was getting soaked in blood and making redheads wash her clothes.

"I'll be careful, though. It'll be better to proceed with caution with everything the way it is right now..." She's had to remind herself time and time again that dying really is permanent, now that she's returned to Weyard. There's no creepy, sadistic surgeon ready to bring her back to life for the sake of his experiments here.

"I haven't got a problem with it at all." The sensation of being a nimbus of fonons is comforting in its own way, really; there are no bonds, nothing that can tie him down in that form. Indeed, if ever he's trapped in some way now, he can just deform his body to escape, which has come in handy a couple of times.

Dying isn't really a problem anymore, either, but unless she's mindreading him again, he'll leave that bit out. Instead he just gives her a confident grin - "And it'll take them even longer, given that they've got to get through me first." Great thing about having a flexible moveset, he could patch any hole in a group's formation. With Sheba, he'd be out on the front lines again - not that he really minds.

Even if death didn't count, it's nice to have someone watching your back. That hadn't changed since the Tower.

"So, where to?"

"That's good." The more at peace with himself Asch was, the happier he'd be. It was a shame Sheba and some of the people she knew couldn't take that to heart and apply it to their own lives.

She laughs at his display of confidence, bringing up a hand to brush some of the longer strands of hair away from her face. "We make a pretty good team," She remarks, thinking back to the (by this time, numerous) times they'd faced down monsters in the Tower. "I'll just be really careful not to misfire when I cast Bind this time!"

If he'd thought she was dangerous when they first met, with the ability to create a rather sporadic "fon slot seal," he'd probably be pretty glad they were on the same side now that she'd improved so much.

"I'd like to take you to Gondowan, but that could take weeks. Maybe even months with all the trouble that's being caused by the Eclipse." She didn't like the way a lot of the people in Weyard had painted her and her friends out, now that so much time had passed since the Elemental Lighthouse beacons had been lit, but that didn't mean she could just leave them to die with all these monsters swarming about. Wherever they went, they'd probably end up making frequent stops to help people who were struggling. "I've been on foot for awhile now - Piers has the ship. It was his to begin with, so of course he does, but sometimes I really miss it..."

Her voice trails off, and when she realizes she's gone on a bit of a tangent, she chuckles. "There's not much to see in Gondowan anyway. Lalivero's... well. I could show you Tolbi... I spent a long time there when I was younger." She idly toys with the hem of her shirt, thinking back to the days when her biggest worry was whether or not Babi would let her return home, and not whether or not she'd end up damning the world. "But again, it's very far away. Contigo is nearby, and Jupiter Lighthouse, too... and the... Anemos Crater, of course." She hesitates before saying "Anemos," and then she shrugs. "I don't mind a long trip if there's something you really want to see! The world's changed a lot from the way it was when I entered the Tower, so there are lots of things to see now that I never mentioned back then."

"Please do. Even though I'm not sure that it'd stick at this point..." Hard to bind up the fon slots of someone who doesn't have one, after all. "Then again, I don't think it'd be a pleasant experience if it did."

At her comments about travelling, he shrugs slightly. "Anywhere's fine. I've got all the time in the world, really." Seeing the sights with someone who knew them was infinitely better than going by himself, anyway; ruins didn't mean anything to him on their own. So he just smiles as she describes the sights -

"I'd like to meet some of your other friends, too." They were what she talked about at the Tower, far more than any of places they'd been, after all.

Sheba just laughs, shrugging a little before shooting him a smile. "We'll just avoid it. The only thing I'll be Binding will be the monsters." Though Bind hadn't been quite as useful here as it had been in the Tower... she found that a little strange. Then again, these creatures themselves were a little strange, so it was no small wonder.

Her face falls, though, when he mentions her friends, and she goes quiet for a few moments. "That's... easier said than done, I think. If we're lucky we might run into Piers on the seas, but he comes and he goes..."

Isaac tended to stay in one place, but then, Isaac had also endorsed those stupid books. She wasn't altogether inclined to go pay him a leisurely visit, these days. Garet was almost always with him. Ivan was busy with his research, Mia with her healing, and Jenna... well. She was Jenna, and as much as Sheba loved her, she had a little trouble forgiving her for siding with Isaac in the Sun Saga debacle.

And Felix...

"Well, there's not a whole lot left to see around here, anyway!" She manages a grin and puts one hand on her hip, holding onto her staff with the other. "It'll be easier to reach parts of Weyard that aren't affected by the Eclipse by ship, too, so we should head for the nearest port and see if we can book passage. A lot of captains are a little hesitant to sail lately, but every time they've taken me out there's been a good wind for sailing!" She winks. "I wonder why that would be?"

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World hoppers gonn' world hop

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