adamant | 8th roar [ video + action for Goldenrod ]

[ The feed clicks on to nothing but Leon's voice, calm and even. If you know him, however, you might realize that he's a touch worried. ]

I heard Lockon was sent home, but has anyone seen Carly? One of her pokemon was transfer---

[ Another voice breaks in, high-pitched and excited and decidedly belonging to a certain ninja. ]

--Leon! Your egg! Gimme that!

[ There's a scuffling noise as Yuffie swipes the gear straight from Leon's hands; no, he gets no say in the matter. She immediately turns on video, and you get a good shot at the inside of Leon's room at the inn. It looks like what you would expect Leon's room to look like: spartan, meticulously kept, nothing of any personal significance on mantelpieces or the wall. Aerith is sitting in a small chair by the bed, Maria on her lap, watching the proceedings with some trepidation. What should attract attention, however, is the pack of dogs crowding the space: Romeo, the big Arcanine, with Mosey the Houndoom sitting sedately beside him. At their feet are Al the Poochyena and the yet-unnamed Riolu. Even Skarmory is there, with Lucky Duck on her back; all six pokemon have their eyes on Leon as he moves towards his backpack, which is now glowing.

Or not quite.

He pulls out the Growlithe egg; it's flickering, which is not something Yuffie's ever seen an egg do, because her voice is a bit cautious when she speaks. ]

Er, Leon? Is it supposed to be doing that?

[ Leon's expression is grim, but he gently sets the egg on the ground and takes a seat. After a few moments, Romeo and Mosey exchange glances, before they move in on the egg. Leon has a moment of apprehension, but neither canine makes an aggressive move. Together, they blow a gust of hot air at the flickering form; that stabilizes it, and its glow becomes more pronounced.

It seems interminable before the egg finally gives a few, meager shakes. The light recedes, leaving nothing but a very, very small Growlithe behind.

A very, very small Growlithe which is very, very immobile.

Yuffie's hand around the pokegear goes shock-still, even as Aerith brings her hands up to her mouth. Skarmory makes a keening noise; the dogs are silent, but their eyes are on the puppy. Leon seems to make a decision, because he surges forward, his voice low and even. ]

Aerith--give me my scarf. Now.

[ Aerith, snapped out of her shock, reaches around for the requested item, wasting no time in throwing it to Leon. He uses it to pick up the tiny thing on the floor, before sitting back down in a single, heavy motion. He settles the small bundle on his knee, bending over it. Then, with the single-minded concentration Leon has been known to give to things that matter, he starts to rub.

He knows, in a corner of his mind, that he should be rushing this small creature to the pokemon center. Isn't that what he told Kairi to do? But he remembers Ari's face when she looked at him, long and measuring. Kisa's gently worried stare, and the promise he made her. If the heat from Romeo and Mosey caused the egg to hatch, then it stands to reason that if he can warm the little one up enough it should wake, right? But he can't make the puppy cross the divide; all he can do is build a bridge and hope she meets him halfway. He can give her a chance.

Isn't that what he'd told Kisa? That they would work together.

Yuffie's hand is shaking a little; anyone's who's been keeping track might be a bit put off. But the camera never leaves Leon's hands, gently but firmly trying to reinvigorate the baby Growlithe. The dogs and Skarmory are all looking at Leon, now--even the distant, quiet Riolu seems worried.

There's no sound other than the soft patter of wind against the windows and collective, tense breathing. Yuffie can distantly be heard whispering, a slow and steady chant of 'come on, come on, come on...'

And then there's a sneeze. The tiniest, dimmest little sneeze you ever heard. Out of the scarf emerges a nose, which Romeo and the others immediately rush to meet.

Relief floods the room. Leon smiles, shy, warm and tired. Aerith laughs, and Yuffie gives a cheerful whoop. ]

She got lucky.

Way to go, Leon! I'm totally showing this to everyone!

[ And with that, Yuffie turns off the feed. ]

[ ooc. gold is Yuffie, pink is Aerith, both used with permission! ]

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[ Now he's opened the possibility of turning the topic back on him, and she wonders if he meant to. After a pause: ]

Does your world not have continents, then?

[ He shakes his head. The size and berth of Radiant Garden in its current incarnation is hardly an uncomfortable topic. ]

No. It's a city, surrounded by mountains. Not much to it.

That's... your entire world? [ She finds this difficult to process. ] I can hardly imagine it.

[ She almost can, though: Balamb, isolated (in space?), is precisely that, a city surrounded by mountains. ]

My hometown was similar, though; a town on a mountainous island. There was a forest, too, near the Garden, which was a short trip from town.

That's it. Go out far enough and you hit the world-barrier, unless you've got special equipment to cross it.

[ He listens to her explanation; again with that word, Garden. ]

Something tells me that this 'Garden' you keep mentioning doesn't involve flowers.

World-barrier... [ She repeats it quietly to herself. ]

The Garden? It's a training academy and base station for the mercenary force known as SeeD. [ Her slightly wry smile acknowledges the joke. ] I enrolled when I was ten years old; lived there longer than I did with my own parents.

[ Startled Leon is startled. Joining a military force at that age? Anyone who wants to help him patrol for Heartless had to be at least thirteen, and accompanied; night patrol was reserved for those fifteen and older. ]

Ten? That's hardly big enough to hold a weapon, nevermind use it.

We weren't battle-trained until we were at least thirteen; anything before that was book knowledge regarding magic, Guardian Forces, monsters, and so on.

[ And this is the part that's hard to explain without sounding like she's preening. She won't try too hard; she's proud of it. ]

I passed my SeeD exam mission at fifteen, the earliest allowed, and was an instructor by seventeen — the youngest on record.

[ He's not exactly impressed--Quistis is basically proudly admitting she was a child soldier--but he figures an institution like this one must have had its purpose. ]

And what did--[ Seeds. Gardens. How terrible. ]--SeeD do, exactly? As a mercenary organization. Take care of monsters?

[ That's a question she only recently learned the answer to. She glances down, thoughtful. ]

As an organization? We were hired by various governments and civilian organizations as soldiers, bodyguards, operatives... assassins. We did what they would pay us to do, whether the targets were monsters or human beings.

That... wasn't the true purpose of SeeD, though. [ And now she hesitates. This is the complex part. ]

... SeeD was created to prepare a specific group of people to face an impending threat that would destroy the planet if left unchecked. Only one woman knew it was coming, and she created the Garden and SeeD to ensure that we'd be ready.

A pretty typical mercenary operation, then.

[ Distasteful? Not quite, but it's something approaching that. Leon has a loftier idea of what soldiers are for. Then again, most worlds don't even have war, where he comes from. Some had never even had conflict before the Heartless showed up. BLAME DISNEY. ]

An impending threat? Sounds pretty serious.

In terms of our day-to-day operations, yes.

[ She pauses to tuck her hair behind her ear, an absent, uncomfortable gesture. She recognizes his tone, but that isn't what she's uneasy about — it's the rest of the explanation. It's still too fresh for her to talk about easily. ]

A sorceress from the future intended to destroy the world. The woman who raised me — us; myself and Squall and our friends — was also a sorceress, and she learned of our fates when we were still young and in her care. She created the Garden and SeeD to be sure that we would be able to defeat the sorceress in the future.

[ Excuse him while he takes a moment to compute all that. Nevermind the fact that Squall and Quistis were apparently raised together; he'll ask about that later. ]

She created a whole military institution to train children? So that they'd be ready to face a future enemy powerful enough to wipe out a world?

[ It doesn't make much sense. Admittedly, Leon knows Sora, who at the ripe old age of fourteen was cast out from his world with nothing but a vague sense of purpose and a big, magical key. Forget training, Sora could barely fight, nevermind fight well. Maybe the system Quistis and the others were raised with was better after all. ]

She learned of the threat from Squall himself, who had come from the future where he defeated the sorceress to warn us. [ She closes her eyes as she says it. Time travel is not her best subject. ] We were the ones destined to stop her.

[ She pauses briefly, then opens her eyes, one eyebrow arching slightly. ] At any rate, we did it, as dubious as it sounds. The six of us saved the world.

[ As proud and slightly defiant as she sounds, she also sounds tired. It's a hell of an accomplishment, but it isn't one she likes to dwell on yet. It's only been a month and a half. ]

[ He shakes his head, disbelieving. ]

Saved the world, huh... [ There's some admiration in his voice, with a whole heap of hesitation; saving his world...it was what he couldn't do. Squall did it. That...no. It doesn't change anything. Not yet, at any rate. ]

He sure doesn't act like it. [ Testy, testy. ]

[ Quistis herself sounds testy in her reply. ]

He doesn't act like a lot of things, lately. I don't know what's wrong with him.

[ She goes quiet, then, unwilling to either return to the previous topic or fully embrace this new one. ]

8th roar [ video + action for Goldenrod ]

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