Past Regrets [Noel]

[Serah Farron]

Time travel was always… interesting to Serah. Not only did you experience a weird, indescribable feeling while floating through time itself, you never really knew where the time gates would take you. Some might find that uncertainty frustrating, but Serah loved it. She enjoyed seeing new things and experiencing surprises every time she and Noel appeared somewhere new. How many people could say they’d seen the things the two of them saw on a daily base? Not many, for certain. This time though, the strangest feeling of dread washed over the pinkette as they travelled towards their next destination. It wasn’t like she could sense danger or anything, but just before they’d entered the time gate, she’d had another one of those visions. It hadn’t been a clear one, but from what she’d been able to see and hear, it wasn’t anything happy. The world was dark and gloomy, and people were running and screaming at terror about something. There was no guarantee that it was going to happen now, it could easily happen at any other time in the future. But considering her other visions had always been right, she knew for a fact that this one would come true as well.

She turned her head and glanced over at Noel, wondering if she should inform him of that vision or not. It was probably the best thing to do, but she knew he worried every time she experienced one, and he already had enough on his mind. Him knowing wouldn’t stop it from coming true anyway, so what was the point? But they had agreed to be honest with each other, so shouldn’t she keep up her end of that bargain as well? “Hey Noel…?” she called over softly, but as soon as his name left her lips, they were all suddenly spat out by the flow of time, and Serah really had to flail about to ensure she wouldn’t land flat on her face. As soon as she looked around her, a sense of familiarity made her stomach turn. This was the place from her vision, wasn’t it? It was dark, it was raining… this looked exactly like what she’d seen. For a moment, she just stared blankly at a group of civilians wandering around. Was this where it was going to happen?

Forcing the worried look off her face, she walked over to where Noel was, “Noel, we should look for shelter,” she glanced up for a moment to indicate the rain, “At least until the rain stops, right?” truth be told, she just wanted to get to a well lit place. Everything she’d seen happen, happened in the darkness they were currently standing in. Maybe if they got to a store or something, what she’d seen wouldn’t happen. …or maybe it would happen, but they simply wouldn’t be around to see it. Was that better? These civilians didn’t look like fighters to her, maybe if she and Noel stayed here, they could protect them somehow. Ugh, why weren’t these visions ever clear? Rather than attempting to look for a place to take shelter from the rain like she’d suggested literally less than five seconds ago, Serah remained on her spot, torn between what the best decision would be.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Words: 543
Tagged: Noel!
Location: Academia (400 AF)
Outfit: Regular
Notes: I hope this is alright, I wasn't sure how else to start it without literally copying the game. xD

[Noel Kreiss]

Another day and another world. Noel thought he would be used to it by now, but traveling through the Historia Crux always seemed a little different each time. He couldn't be sure if the feeling was from the Crux itself or from the different levels of anticipation he felt with the trip to each different time and world. Over the past...well, however long, he and Serah had been to some pretty dangerous places - Oerba especially came to mind, but most everywhere they'd been had been at least partially dangerous due to the paradoxes. Every trip through the Historia Crux could take them to a place that was even worse than the last, so there was always that feeling with Noel that, even though he was floating like a feather in mid-air, he had to be tense and ready for a fight as they slowly made their way through the coils of time. This trip was no exception, and a temporary bit of silence between him and Serah, who was floating a few feet ahead, had his mind racing with theories as what was up ahead, on the other side of this time gate.

Serah did speak, though, bringing Noel's eyes from the base of the Historia Crux up to her face. She apparently wanted to ask him something, by the tone of her voice. "Yeah?", he asked back, inviting whatever it was she wanted to say. Any further conversation, though, was cut off for the time being as Noel felt the sensation of falling take hold of him instantly, and he threw out an arm to catch him as he landed on solid ground. Yep, that was the end of that trip through the Crux. After glancing at Serah to make sure she'd landed okay, Noel pushed himself up as he glanced down at his hand to study whatever it was that was pounding against his hand. A pretty heavy rain shower was coming down on their heads. Part of the paradox? Probably not, since the people living here who were primarily standing back at the sight of the two time travelers, but there was no doubt it was eerily dark here - here, clearly being Academia, though Noel couldn't exactly tell what year. Regardless of all that, there didn't seem to be any sort of immediate threat pressing down on them. They'd have a few minutes, at least, to get their bearings and figure out exactly what was going on in this time's Academia.

He nodded lightly at Serah's words. "Good idea. Getting soaked and cold is the last thing we need to slow us down." Finding a place that could serve as shelter in a place as vertical as Academia was, though, wasn't the easiest thing. It was obviously nighttime, so chances were most of the buildings were shut up tight for the next few hours. As he swung around, though, he did notice one place that seemed to be open, though only sightly. The door to it looked like it opened from bottom to top, and there was enough of a crack in the bottom for a human being to sit in comfortably. Noel had no idea what the building was used for, but it looked like the perfect place to slip in and wait for the rain to stop...and hopefully whoever owned the place wouldn't mind or deny a couple of people a little safety from the pouring rain. He pointed it out, sweeping a little bit of wet hair out of his eyes. "How about over there? It's open, and we wouldn't have to go inside, just stick around the door."

Seeing Serah out of the corner of his eye, though, Noel paused and turned to her, a look of concern on his face. "You look worried," he told her. "Is everything okay?"

Words - 681
Muse - Excellent.
Outfit - Usual
Notes - This is bleh, but it should suffice. XD[/size]

[Serah Farron]

This was definitely where it was going to happen, there was no doubt about it. The location was the same, the people looked the same, even the weather and the time of day seemed the same as they’d been in her vision earlier. Serah’s first instinct was to run and get out of this situation to avoid whatever tragedy would take place here, but as always, rather than acting on that hunch, she continued to think about this situation, which ended up confusing her. If she did run from this particular place, would that mean that whatever horror she’d seen in her vision wouldn’t come to pass? Or would it still happen, but without Serah and Noel there to do some damage control? To say the pinkette was conflicted would be putting it lightly. Serah had absolutely no idea how to handle this, and right now, she wished she’d confessed to Noel sooner, so they could’ve come up with a plan on how to deal with all of this before they actually got here. Good job Serah. Then again, she’d only had these visions for a little while now. You couldn’t be an expert on something you didn’t even know existed before maybe a month or so ago.

The younger Farron didn’t reply when Noel suggested a location for them to take shelter, not because she couldn’t care less about what he said, but simply because she was too caught up in her own fears to even hear half of what he was saying to her. She turned around and took another look around the area to confirm that this was really the place. It was. And no matter how much she’d try to convince herself that it wasn’t, that wouldn’t change the truth. The pinkette moved a few wet locks of hair out of her face as her eyes moved from person to person. Should she warn them? Tell them to get away from here? That sounded like the best course of action to take, but who would believe her if she told them she’d had a vision of something awful taking place here? And what if they asked her about the specifics? She couldn’t give those to them, because the vision hadn’t shown her anything specific – just enough to scare her and inform her that something bad would happen.

“No…” she admitted when Noel asked her whether she was alright or not. It was now or never, she had to tell Noel what was up before whatever was supposed to happen happened. Turning back around, she gave her full attention to her partner in time travel, “Noel, I had another vision…” she confessed quietly as her eyes seemed to automatically cast themselves downwards, “Before we entered the Historia Crux, I had a vision of this place… or I-I think it was this place,” she looked around once more, “Something really awful is going to happen, right here on this spot,” she crossed her arms over her chest and frowned deeply, “But I’m not sure what’s going to happen, or why…” these visions were never all that clear on the details. They just showed a general picture of what would happen, and that’s it. They never gave you anything to really work with, and that was more frustrating than anything. “I don’t know what to do… I don’t know if we should stay here or leave… I just… I just don’t know…” her voice cracked a little during that last sentence, and Mog almost instantly hovered over to pat her shoulder comfortingly. Normally that might’ve made her feel better, but right now, it only made her feel worse. Still, she appreciated the gesture and tried her best to smile for him, gently patting his head before looking back at Noel. “I’m sorry… I should’ve told you sooner,” she looked down again after that, not sure what else to say or do at the moment.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Words: 655
Tagged: Noel!
Location: Academia (400 AF)
Outfit: Regular
Notes: They can probably get attacked in your post. =D

[Noel Kreiss]

Yeah, Serah was definitely distracted by something. Noel hadn't known her to just stay completely silent on a situation - she'd usually have a comment or suggestion, no matter how small. This was a partnership, after all, so they tended to communicate and try to agree any time they could. Noel took a second, despite the rain, to watch her closely and he tried to figure out what it was she was searching for around them, because she seemed almost...disoriented by something. All Noel could see, though, were the people moving around the streets or eying them strangely, and they all looked okay to him. What was she worrying about?

And she was going to be honest about it, by the sound of it, though he'd really come to expect that from her. It didn't put his mind any more at east for her to come out and admit that she wasn't alright, though. Noel forgot all about the shelter and the rain and everything as he looked to her anxiously to hear what she was worried about. Didn't take him long to find out, either. Agh, another vision. They were getting more frequent now, and they were kind of starting to worry him. Yeul had been...having visions more and more often before she'd...passed. He didn't want to think Serah's visions were anything like Yeul's, but the thought had to cross his mind. Right now, though, she was okay, which meant he had to focus on the actual vision itself and not a concern that might turn out to be nothing.

Serah didn't exactly have all the answers, but...by the sounds of it, the reason she had been so keen on keeping an eye on what had been going on around her was because the vision had been of this place, and even this exact spot if he understood her right. The thought had Noel glancing over his shoulder to the far end of the walkway, too. Everything seemed alright...there weren't any monsters or paradoxes that he could see or anything really to indicate something bad was going to start happening. But...would Caius show up to try and fight them? Or would a paradox form because they were here and disrupting the flow of time slightly with their presence? Considering those two ideas, Noel was starting to think Serah's flight idea might be the best bet. First things first, though - he couldn't let her go beating herself up just because she hadn't told him as soon as they'd gotten here.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Serah. I know what it's like to have to carry bad news around. You don't know whether to keep it to yourself or tell everyone you can..." Plenty of times, another person had died in his village and he would have to go and tell Yeul eventually. It was never easy to know just the right time. There probably wasn't a right time, but he guessed a person had to get it off their chest eventually and let someone else share in the problem. He figured it probably wasn't the easiest thing for anyone to do at all.

Right, but now, they had to make a decision here. Should they stay or should they go? "I....don't know what to do either," Noel said, defeated, again looking to the far end of the street. He sighed under his breath. "If it's something that's gonna attack us here, maybe we can handle it and fight it off anyway. And if we left and it turned out to be something that was going to happen anyway, we can't protect anyone...but it's still risky." The way he was working it out in his mind, though, it was starting to sound like they needed to stay. Noel would always feel better when he had a problem in front of him that he could at least try to take care of instead of running from it. "If you're asking...I think maybe we should stay."

Words - 724
Muse - Excellent!
Notes - Decided to leave it one more post, since Noel had a lot to ramble about here. XD [/size]

[Serah Farron]

Serah truly couldn’t understand how Yeul endured these visions for such a long time. For her, it had been a few weeks, maybe a month or so tops since she started having them, and already they were driving her insane. The visions themselves weren’t so awful, it was kind of scary to just suddenly lose your vision of whatever was up ahead and have it be replaced with something else entirely, but overall, it wasn’t a painful experience or anything. The problem lay in the fact that the visions so far had never been clear, just general enough to give you a clue as to what might be going on, but not detailed enough to give you an idea of how to solve the problem. Did they get clearer with time? Serah sure hoped so, maybe then they could actually be a helpful tool rather than a burden that only slowed them down on their quest.
With a saddened expression, the pinkette looked up at her companion, but despite his kind words, she couldn’t bring herself to smile. Instead she just nodded her head slowly in agreement. It really was difficult to keep these things to yourself, although considering all the practice she’d had in the past, you’d think she would’ve gotten better at handling it by now. Keeping what had happened to her in the Pulse Vestige a secret for Snow and Light had been incredibly difficult as well, and it had felt like such a relief when she’d finally been able to just get it off her chest. Lightning’s response had made her feel worse than she’d ever felt, but at least she didn’t have to carry that news with her any more. Right now, after having told Noel about what was going on, Serah felt a similar sense of relief, but it was overshadowed some by her worries about the vision.

At Noel’s suggestion, the younger Farron nodded again. That was what she’d been thinking as well, and hearing someone else say it just confirmed that it was probably the right idea to have. Maybe what was supposed to happen would happen because of them, but right now, they had no way of knowing that. For all they knew, something was going to swoop in and ruin everyone’s peace regardless of their presence here, and if that happened to be the case, then it was better to have at least two decent fighters around to limit the damage. “I… I agree,” she told him quietly before crossing her arms and looking around again, her entire body was tense with anticipation. This was where it was going to happen, and it should happen at any minute now. Knowing something bad was going to happen and just standing around and waiting for it was a really awful feeling to have, and Serah hoped this would be the last time it happened. She knew better though. This journey was far from over yet.
“Do you think we should warn everyone? Would they even believe us?” she asked over her shoulder as she watched people just casually walk along the streets, blissfully unaware of the impending danger. “Maybe we cou-“ her sentence was cut short by a gasp, caused by a sharp pain in her left arm. Her hand initially just reached out to grasp the spot, but as soon as her hand touched it, the pain only intensified. With a worried expression, Serah pulled her armband down and stared at her skin with a shocked expression. The skin where her l’cie brand had once been flared up as though the mark was still there. Again she tried to cover it up with her hand before everyone got their pitchforks out to deal with the evil l’cie, but soon enough, her attention was torn away from her arm and directed elsewhere.

The pinkette’s blood ran cold upon beholding the scene before her. The people that had been strolling around so casually before had now stopped in their tracks, letting out horrific screams of anguish before they seemingly started to mutate into… were those Cieth? They looked like Cieth… But how could non-l’cie even turn into Cieth at all? What was doing this? Was this… was this her fault? Was it because she was here that this happened?
Serah’s eyes immediately darted around the area to try and locate whatever thing or beast was causing these mutations, but she couldn’t find it. Confusion laced her every thought, but she didn’t get to dwell on it. The freshly made Cieth seemed to have already accepted their fate, and were now in the process of trying to destroy everything that wasn’t like them; regular civilians that hadn’t been turned, but Noel and Serah as well. A group of five turned to storm in their direction. Things really couldn’t get any worse than this.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Words: 809
Tagged: Noel
Location: Academia (400 AF)
Outfit: Regular
Notes: Time to kick some ass?

[Noel Kreiss]

If there was one thing Noel hated, it was those times when he wanted to be actively doing something to solve a problem but not knowing if that action would be the right thing. He found himself smack in the middle of one of those times as he stood here with Serah, both of them aimlessly staring around at the innocent people around who might get caught up in...whatever was coming. He balled up his fists subconsciously. Agh, how was he supposed to just stand around and wait for something bad? The simple fact that he was here, in this world, was as good of an indication as any that Noel wasn't the type to stand by and let fate come to him. But when he didn't know how much help he could be, if any at all, and especially didn't know what that help could actually be...it was harder to just jump at the next threat. What threat? There was nothing here...

What Serah brought up was a good idea, though, and at least meant Noel could feel better that he was trying to stop whatever problem was coming. Noel knew he wasn't the most well-spoken person around, especially compared to most people he'd met outside of his own world (heck, some of what Hope had been saying might as well have been called speaking in tongues to Noel's ears), but he was pretty sure they could convince people to believe them. After all, the two of them had just popped out of a time gate and no one had been expecting that to happen, right? Telling people that there was trouble coming seemed pretty minor compared to their arrival. To that end, Noel nodded to Serah. "Yeah...we can't go wrong with at least trying." So they'd do it. One of them each on both sides of the street, telling as many people as they could. Maybe the more people they got to, the more would be willing to believe them and do something to protect themselves or get out of the area...

But Noel's thoughts on the subject were rattled slightly, hearing Serah cutting herself off. He'd been looking down the opposite street at a line of people he could tell about the danger, but when she stopped he swung his gaze back towards his companion. "Ser-", he began, before she started pulling down the band covering her arm. The subject that had stopped her mid-thought was pretty obvious - her arm, or at least a small portion of it about the size of someone's fist, was glowing as if it were on fire. Concern written on his face, Noel took a step towards her. "Is this it?", he asked, briskly, only letting his eyes stray from Serah's arm long enough to look up at the people around them. His eyes remained there. Something was...wrong. Very, very wrong.

A man in a suit passing by behind Serah was...in pain, obviously. He stopped in his path and grasped at his chest...and in a scene more horrific than most anything Noel could remember seeing, his body started shifting into something...something wrong. That...looked too much like a Cie'th for Noel to believe it was anything else. His jaw dropped lightly. No...this was it. This was the disaster Serah had seen before they came here...and it was unfolding just like it was supposed to before their eyes. Noel felt his stomach double-over in knots just knowing that this was happening and he hadn't had the chance to stop it.

But quickly, his mind jumped back into action mode. As many of the people that were changing into monsters were people who were now being attacked by those monsters...and them, Noel could do something about. The first few were coming for him and Serah, though, and without thinking about a tactic he stepped toward the first of them with his weapons already pulled from his back. He didn't want to do what he was about to do - this was an innocent human attacking against his will - but what was he supposed to do? He just had to defend himself and Serah...that was his job here. A miserable job.

Noel took a gathering step and cleaved through the Cie'th's chest, sending it warbling and collapsing to the ground in a pathetic display. The next three shoved past the first, making a beeline for the pair of time travelers. "Back up!", Noel called, as he moved to do the same so as not to get overwhelmed. Of all the disasters they could have walked into...

Words - 817
Muse - Excellent!
Notes - Wrote this while very tired. XD If it's odd, that's why.[/size]

[Serah Farron]

Back on Cocoon, a subject similar to her situation now had come up in a philosophy class. It was about knowing when and how you were going to die in the future, the question had been whether you’d want to know it or choose to remain ignorant about it, you also had to explain your reason for choosing one over the other. Back then, Serah had chosen that she wanted to know, because if she knew, at least she’d always know how much time she still had. She could properly plan her future with that piece of information in mind. Others had told her that it would be a great burden to know that you only had a certain amount of time left before you bit the dust, but the pinkette had honestly believed that the positives outweighed the negatives. Now that she could actually see the future however, she took back everything she’d said during that class, no more than three years ago now. Seeing the future was really horrible, especially if you only saw one point in time, and not all the events leading up to that point. It made you feel powerless and useless, because what use was it to know that something bad was going to happen, but be unable to prevent it from happening because you didn’t know the events leading up to it?

Even after she’d told Noel about her vision, she couldn’t bring herself to actually look at him. Serah knew he wouldn’t think badly of her for not knowing what to do here, after all, he’d known Yeul in his own time, and Yeul suffered from the same fate she did. He knew there was nothing she could do about her visions. But still… even if he didn’t think badly of her, it didn’t mean she didn’t think badly of herself. She wanted to help these people so badly; protect them from whatever was going to happen to them, but she couldn’t, and that was more frustrating than anything she’d ever had to deal with in the past. Even dealing with everyone telling her Lightning was dead when she knew for a fact that she was alive somewhere hadn’t been so bad compared to this. Noel agreed with her suggestion of trying to warn everyone, and that made her feel at least a little better about this whole situation. If they could get even a few people to listen to them and heed their warning, that was already better than doing nothing. Saving even one or two people meant they had actually tried to fix whatever mess they’d gotten themselves into this time. Serah was about to suggest they split up and warn as many people as were willing to listen to them, but before she could finish her sentence, she felt a sharp, foreign pain in her left arm. As soon as she felt it, something told her that what she had seen in her vision was about to happen, right here, right now. This was just the start.

“N-No...” she whispered fearfully when Noel approached her with his question, before her attention was drawn to the man that had just passed her by. And it wasn’t just him; whole groups of people were caught up in whatever was causing this sudden mutation. They changed into what could only be Cie’th right before her eyes, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She was too late… had she acted sooner, some of these people might’ve been able to escape in time to avoid this horror. But despite feeling tears of sorrow begin to well up in her eyes, Serah had no time to dwell on her fears and regrets. The people she’d failed to save had become mindless monsters, and those monsters lusted for blood, both the blood of their former neighbors and friends as well as Serah and Noel’s. She couldn’t stand around and mope, she needed to fight. She needed to make sure that the people who hadn’t been turned wouldn’t fall victim to those who had. Those Cie’th couldn’t be saved anymore, but the others still had a chance. Noel had the same thought, because even before Serah had a chance to react, he was already running forward to deal with the first Cie’th that happened to be running in their direction. The pinkette followed his lead and grasped her bow after Mog had transformed into it. Without really wasting any time, she started to shoot her arrows at the ones Noel had already targeted. With their joined effort, the Cie’th went down in a distorted and miserable fashion, which only served to make Serah feel even worse about all of this. There was nothing human left inside those things, was there? They truly were lost to them. Serah quietly obeyed when Noel told her to step back, but when she’d reached a safe distance, she started shooting again – this time adding extra power to her attack by fueling them with magic – to make sure they couldn’t come too close to them. Even if they did get up in their faces, at least the arrows would’ve weakened them enough that Noel could take care of them without having to use too much effort. They needed to spare their strength for the next wave, which was sure to come.

As her eyes scanned the battlefield for enemies, Serah spotted more innocent people just suddenly turning into these horrific creatures… what was doing this? “Noel! We need to find out what’s causing this, otherwise they’re gonna keep coming!” or that seemed to be the case anyway, since more and more people kept getting turned, seemingly out of nowhere. But something, somewhere had to be doing this. They needed to find that source, because even if they had experience fighting, neither Noel nor Serah would be able to keep fighting forever.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Words: 983
Tagged: Noel!
Location: Academia (400 AF)
Outfit: Regular
Notes: Since taking the game’s course of running through the entire city fighting things would take really, really long, I figured maybe they could find a machine or something that is turning everyone into Cie’th and they could destroy it like the bosses they are? =o

[Noel Kreiss]

It had been a good thing Noel said for the both of them to step back. Joining the three Cie'th he was initially retreating from were a pack of six more that had been on the opposite side of the...moving sidewalk from them. They looked just as horrible and distorted as the others, including the one now lying motionless and almost in two pieces on the ground that Noel couldn't look at. He just had to remember to focus on the fight. As much as he wanted these people to be alright, he hadn't ever heard of any Cie'th turning back into a human being, and these monsters - they were monsters now - would kill them and every living person left if they got their hands on them. It was just like dealing with the Cie'th in Oerba. Noel hadn't felt this way then, because he hadn't seen the humans that had been turned into the Cie'th that roamed there. The key was knowing that, in a way, he was helping to stop their suffering. In some way...

He almost backed up too far, as he struggled with these thoughts, and bumped into Serah, but hearing one of her arrows whiz past reminded him to stop and try to set up the means to defend themselves from here. The rain continued to pour, serving as a pretty good distraction from actually managing to keep a focus on the fight. He took stock of the situation, noticing that there were some coming from two angles now. "I've got the ones in front, Serah! Can you keep them from flanking us?" Shooting her a glance, he gave a nod before setting himself up a few feet away from her, ducking under a Cie'th's flailing arm and relieving it of that arm before stabbing it through the chest. It fell into another, that was thrown off-balance enough for Noel to trip it up and swipe at it as it was falling. The closest one coming up next...it was one of the big ones. That meant magic. Noel grit his teeth at it, sheathing his shorter blade long enough to call on his own spell and send a stream of ice along the ground towards the Cie'th's feet with an upwards gesture. The beast became unbalanced with the ice made slicker by the rain, making no progress as it tried to skate its way towards Noel. Sending a pair of Fire spells in its direction to follow up, Noel slowly paced his way backwards until he felt himself bump lightly into Serah and heard her words.

"Right!", he agreed, well-knowing that the source of something should always be the target. It'd be easier to stop these disasters from happening altogether than it would be to keep cutting these things down...that would take a toll physically and emotionally. "We're boxed in from here! We gotta find a way to get around them and deeper into the city...." He didn't want to take his eyes off the approaching throng, but there was no getting through them without getting overwhelmed. That meant their left and front weren't going to get them anywhere. Behind them was one of the shops. To the right...a railing. It told of how pressed in they were that the railing seemed like the best option to Noel once he spotted it.

Just as the larger Cie'th started to recover from the disappearing ice and began lumbering towards them again, Noel backed his way towards the railing, taking a look over the edge as he did so. There was a pathway down there...and it wasn't that long of a drop. Mog could help Serah with her drop...as long as Noel himself could make it. Below them were more Cie'th, but they weren't grouped up in the same way. They didn't have anything to attack, it seemed, so they were ambling around uncertainty. It looked like they had a much better chance to break through down below than they had here...because here, they weren't going anywhere.

Noel whirled around to his pink-haired companion. "Serah! I think we've gotta make this jump! Looks like the only way to get moving." He stepped forward to her, preparing to give her a little cover if she did decide it was a wise thing to do. The Cie'th were basically on top of them now, and Noel swung at the outstretched arm of one trying to reach for his companion, before shoving it back with an Aero spell. "Give her a hand with it, Mog!", he reminded the little weapon-creature, as he stood pat and waited for any more Cie'th he'd need to deter from following them. Etro, let this work...the last thing they needed right now were broken legs.

Words - 858
Muse - Excellent!
Notes - I agree! Hope this is okay. XD Different from the game, at least. See, if we could have done this in-game, this level wouldn't have taken 8 years to complete.[/size]

[Serah Farron]

There didn’t seem to be a way to stop whatever was causing this from turning people into Cie’th. Although initially it had only been a few people that had turned and attacked both herself and Noel as well as the innocent civilians that were still themselves, more and more people were turning now, it was like someone was watching their progress, and decided that for every Cie’th that bit the dust, two more had to be created in order to keep fighting them and eventually wearing them out. And that was exactly what would happen if this onslaught kept up, they’d eventually be overwhelmed and unable to fight back. Serah bit her lip as she shot the Cie’th nearest to them in the face, making him stagger backwards for a moment, the pinkette used that opportunity to throw a fire spell at what had once been an innocent person, when that didn’t do the trick, she shot an arrow laced with more magic. Eventually, this Cie’th also toppled over, never to rise again. Serah for her part felt like she was about to get sick, what was even going on? And why was this happening? What kind of strategy was it to get rid of a l’cie by turning normal people into Cie’th? Serah just couldn’t wrap her mind around it. When Noel bumped into her, she was shaken from her thoughts enough to hear his plan, “I got it!” she told him, trying to sound as confident as possible for the time being, before turning to the Cie’th trying to corner them and shooting more arrows at them.

Every now and then she looked over at Noel to check if he was still doing alright, but she really didn’t have to. Noel was a far more experienced fighter than she was, and if anyone could handle himself in impossible seeming situations such as these, it was him. Even so, Noel was intelligent enough to understand when it was time to pull back and try another strategy, because their current one was getting them nowhere. There were too many people in this city that could potentially be turned into enemies, and they couldn’t keep fighting until every last man, woman and child had been slain. Serah was fairly certain neither of them would be able to live with themselves after that, even if they hadn’t been given a choice in the matter. “Do you see an opening somewhere?” Serah asked as she backed up and continued to fire arrows at their advancing foes. Soon enough, the arrows would be useless, because their enemies would be too close for the projectiles to do enough damage. “Noel…” she called again, motioning for the Cie’th again as they effectively boxed them in completely.

Serah gave up on trying to keep them away for now when Noel told her about the jump. The pinkette’s eyes widened some when she looked down over the railing, it looked high… not too high, but still… Serah was no expert on heights, what if either of them broke a leg or something trying to get down there? That was something they couldn’t risk, not now, anyway. Breaking something now pretty much meant they were going to die. She looked over her shoulder at Noel again as it was now he who took care of their enemies whilst she looked down, she would’ve protested his plan, but now was not the time. It was either jump and have a 50/50 chance of getting out unscathed, or stay here and get trampled by Cie’th. At least the jump had a possibility of ending well for them. “Okay, I’m going!” she informed Noel before climbing over the railing and biting her lip once more as she looked down at the floor below. Mog at this point had turned back into himself and was clinging to her arm. He probably wouldn’t be much help here, but she appreciated that he was at least trying to get her down safely. Taking a deep breath, Serah threw caution to the wind and jumped away from the level she was on now, Mog holding onto her arm did slow her fall some but hardly enough to grant her a soft landing. As soon as her feet hit the pavement, the air was knocked from her lungs, but otherwise, her jump had been rather successful.

Looking up at where Noel was, she stood back up, “Noel! Your turn!” she called up, though she didn’t keep looking in that direction. The Cie’th down here had noticed her dropping in on their party, and where they had just been aimlessly wandering around in search for prey earlier, they were now advancing towards her. Mog turned back into a weapon, though this time she chose to use her sword. A bow would allow them to get too close, and Noel needed a safe place to land, so rather than staying here and shooting, Serah took the Snow-approach and just rushed into the much smaller group of enemies and started slashing at them, occasionally throwing up a magical attack and dodging a counter attack whenever she spotted one, all the while backing away from where Noel would be landing. By the time he got down, they would all be facing her instead of him, so that would be an advantage for them, right? Because then he could attack them from behind, and hopefully land a few good hits on them. The only flaw in her plan? Serah was no Snow, and though she’d gotten a lot stronger since joining Noel on this journey, she still wasn’t as skilled as her fiancé or sister were, and it didn’t take too long for her constant attacks to take a toll on her body. She was getting tired fast, and her attacks were getting weaker and more sluggish. She’d managed to take two weaker ones down though, Noel could probably handle the rest until she caught her breath again. Kneeling down, Serah placed her arms protectively in front of herself, using the attack – or more like the defensive move – that Snow had taught her; STEELGUARD! This should keep her safe for a little while, but she couldn’t last forever. Hopefully Noel would get here soon to help her out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Words: 1046
Tagged: Noel!
Location: Academia (400 AF)
Outfit: Regular
Notes: When I see an opportunity to use steelguard, I have to take it. I just can't help myself. ;__;

[Noel Kreiss]

Yeah, Serah's expression, which Noel caught just before he turned to cover them, pretty much told the story of how crazy this idea was, but still...what else could they expect to do with them all boxed into a corner that had no other escape routes? The answer was nothing. Even if Noel thought they could have pushed through the Cie'th and gotten themselves to a point where they could maneuver...it would take them cutting down at least fifteen or twenty Cie'th that had once been human beings and, while they probably wouldn't ever be human beings again, he didn't want to think he'd killed twenty of them. Serah wouldn't want to think the same thing on her own accord. So...the jump. They'd survived some pretty decent falls so far...and this wasn't even a fall, technically. They were jumping on purpose and they could put themselves in place to land properly and...yeah. Noel had to justify it to himself, because the obvious idea about this was that it was a completely insane thing to be doing in the middle of a fight that was already stressful enough...

But, she was going to go through with it.

Noel turned after lashing out with another Aero spell to see her climbing over the railing, and immediately turned away. He wasn't going to want to watch her jump. "Let this work...", he said under his breath, cringing, as he drove upwards and sent a slash through the nearest Cie'th's chest that sent it vertical and backwards, crashing into two more. He turned around again. Serah was gone. He waited, nervously, to hear her say something that wound indicate she was alright, but the Cie'th bellowed to remind him they were there, and his anxiousness turned into a means of defense as he dove in between a pair and slashed outward, cutting them both mostly off at the waists.

And then, Serah's voice. Alright, it had worked!

"Coming!", he yelled back down, doubting she could hear him, as his eyes remained trained on the Cie'th before him that basically now had him pushed up against the railing. Yeah, jumping now would definitely not lead to good things happening to him...they'd grab him or they'd knock him off-balance, and then he'd have a really great sensation hit him in the legs once he made it to the level where Serah was waiting.

So, time to break up this party.

Bracing himself against the railing with an arm, Noel brought up his other arm, gathered strength for a spell and sent a Ruinga spell into the midst of the Cie'th. It did it's job; it exploded with enough force to send the "monsters" flying back and away from Noel, and it would have given him a pretty good rock too if he hadn't been holding himself in place. But, seeing that it had worked, Noel ran out from the railing a short ways, turned and took off in a run. Ignoring the knowledge of what could happen at the bottom, Noel let out a sharp yell and leaped over, balancing himself with the rails. The descent wasn't a long one, but Noel did have enough time to straighten himself well enough to land and throw himself onto his side, sliding across the sidewalk to absorb his momentum. He skidded to a stop, took a breath and realized he was fine. Whew.

But once he rolled onto his back and got his bearings, he realized this wasn't the time for a break. He couldn't even see Serah in among the wall of Cie'th that had their backs facing him. A magical aura was all he had to judge on where she was, which didn't mean anything good for her. Noel immediately popped to his feet and retrieved the shorter sword he'd dropped at the very end of his sliding. And then he was on the backs of the Cie'th, cutting his way into their numbers by slashing two down. Wanting to clear them out and get to Serah more than wipe the pack out, he brought his hands up alternatively to the left and right andn blew the Cie'th back with Aero spells, pounding his way through until he saw pink. So many of them...they had to stop this problem at its source, or they'd be fighting for days.

Or dead.

Words - 795
Muse - Excellente!
Notes - Not a thing [/size]

[Serah Farron]

This entire idea was beyond crazy, but what other choice did they have in the matter? If they stayed here and fought, soon enough the entire city would’ve been turned to Cie’th, all of which wanted a piece of them. Serah thought pretty highly of Noel’s skills, and her own fighting skills had improved a lot too since they’d started off on this quest, but there was no way the two of them could take on an actual army of Cie’th. Four or five, yes, but even that was pushing it. These weren’t meek little lambs that went down without much effort, it took a lot of hacking and slashing just to get them to slow down enough to go in for the real attacks. So even though Serah believed Noel’s idea of jumping down to the level below, which also had Cie’th wandering around in search for victims, was an insane one, she still found herself climbing over the railing and looking down anxiously. There was no way around this, so it was best to just get it over with before Noel got swamped trying to keep their enemies off her back while she braced herself for what could possibly end with her breaking both her legs and becoming a Cie’th snack.

Had the situation been different, the younger Farron would’ve closed her eyes, gulped, taken at least three deep breaths and whined over her shoulder to her companion about how insane this idea was, but there was plain and simply no time for any of that. One deep breath was the only thing she managed before she threw all reason away and made the jump, which went surprisingly well. They weren’t out of this yet though. This level seemed to have been affected by whatever made the people change into these disfigured creatures, and they’d all noticed the pinkette’s sudden appearance in their midst. Where it had been Noel who initially guarded her as she jumped, it was now her responsibility he could land safely on this side. That’s what partners did, they looked out for one another, instead of just having one person do all the work. Giving herself a sharp nod and a quick breath, Serah summoned her sword and glanced briefly over her shoulder to let Noel know it was safe to jump. As soon as she’d gotten the words pushed out of her throat, she leaped forward, sword in hand, ready to do what needed to be done in order for both of them to survive.

For someone who hadn’t been fighting all that long yet, Serah felt she was doing a decent enough job at fighting these… “things”… off all by herself. Two of the smaller, weaker forms of the Cie’th landed at her feet after a struggle that felt like it had gone on for ages, but there was no time to celebrate her victory. The second her kills hit the floor, the bigger ones were on her, blindly swiping their enormous arms at her, and though she managed to dodge the first, the second one hit her straight in the shoulder and sent her staggering to the side. Another hit came from the opposite side, and before she knew it, the pinkette was being pushed and slapped around like a ragdoll, powerless to resist their attacks any longer. There was no way she could get another hit in, and rather than being stubborn by continuing to try, she instead knelt down and held her arms out in front of her as she used that tactic Snow had taught her. A field of magic formed around her that absorbed the blows for now, but she wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. Soon enough, her energy would start to fade, weakening the field and letting the Cie’th’s attacks through again. Her eyes darted over to the railing she’d jumped down from, that is, she was looking in that direction and trying to see anything at all, which was near impossible considering there were at least three Cie’th cornering her and beating on her shield like there was no tomorrow. Did Noel jump yet? She hadn’t heard him call back to her after her own jump, so maybe he hadn’t heard her and was still fighting up there? Or maybe he had heard her calls, but he’d been stuck in the same compromising position she found herself in now? This wasn’t going to end well… was it?

A blast of wind knocking the Cie’th away from her caught her completely off guard, and a confused look settled over her features before she looked up and spotted Noel. So he had jumped! Thank goodness for that… at least now, it was two against… however many Cie’th there were left. They needed to figure out how to stop this, and fast. Now that she was free for a moment, the younger Farron dropped her magical shield and sat on her hands and knees for a moment to catch her breath, but soon climbed back to her feet again. “There’s no end to them…” she sighed desperately as she watched the group Noel’s magic had pushed back regroup once again. Rather than storming them again and hoping for the best, Serah allowed her eyes to wander elsewhere. Something was causing this, and the sooner they found it, the better. Where was it though…? And what did it even look like? As her gaze scanned the area, it suddenly landed on a strange, floating machine like thing. It looked like a camera of sorts. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she gasped when she spotted the device suddenly fly off at breakneck speed, as though it knew it had been caught and needed to get away. “Over there!” she called, pointing at it as it flew right past them towards another railing.

Without really thinking, Serah sprinted after it, forgetting about the Cie’th as she focused all her attention on what she assumed was the cause of all this misery and death. That jump back there must’ve destroyed her common sense, because rather than stopping when she got to the railing, the pinkette simply climbed up on it and then jumped after the device, reaching her hands out for it as she leaped off. Thank Etro for her luck though, because it had been this close and she would’ve missed it and plummeted down to ground level… which was pretty far down… oh God, she was looking down. She shouldn’t have done that, or rather, she should’ve done that before jumping after a flying device. Her face paled considerably, but she forced herself to look up at the device instead. She needed to find a way to shut it down.

It wasn’t about to go down without a fight though, and rather than just quietly hovering in its spot, it staggered all over the place, first farther away from the floor she’d been on a minute ago, but then it flew back over there, keeping low as if it wanted to throw her right into the Cie’th. At least she was no longer in danger of falling several floors down and breaking every bone in her body though, that was something. “Noel!” she called in a panicky tone as she flew back his way at an impressive speed, “Be ready, I’m taking it down!” because she was totally in control of this thing, yep. Biting her lip some, Serah squeezed her eyes shut as she summoned a water attack in the palms of her hands, sending it right into the machine. As expected, water and electronics didn’t mix too well at all. The result of her attack was that… the machine suddenly stopped dead in its tracks, the momentum of the sudden halt causing Serah to lose her grip and be launched down onto the ground. With a yelp, she hit the floor hard, and groaned in pain before pushing up to her elbows. The machine still wasn’t broken entirely, but at least it wasn’t flying all over the place anymore.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Words: 1343
Tagged: Noel!
Location: Academia (400 AF)
Outfit: Regular
Notes: In case you couldn't tell, this post was all over the freaking place. XD I hope it's okay, let me know if it's not! =3

[Noel Kreiss]

Thank Etro Serah was still okay. Noel found her encased in a defensive aura, one of the Cie’th he blew away almost comically crashing against her spherical shell and rolling over it to prove just how resilient it was. Noel sent the last of the nearby Cie’th flying, only realizing how much the repetitive Aero spells had taken out of him once he turned at Serah’s side and noticed the fatigue in his shoulders that made him noticeably slump. It would do Noel no good to complain, though. Serah was tired too, and he watched closely to make sure she was in good enough shape to get to her own feet after she’d had a chance to catch her breath. Cie’th were closing in again – the same ones Noel had blown back, reminding him of just how tough these monsters were. He was soaked, the cold air could seep through to the bone, and Noel knew his clothes were now dead weight, but it wasn’t as if they could decide they were tired, miserable, and likely on their way to pneumonia and leave. They were fighting for survival, and though Noel did know how to retreat despite what some people would claim, he also knew that there was no retreat from this place. The world was their warzone right now.

He forced himself to catch his breath, raising his blades again. "If they can be stopped once, they can be stopped again,” Noel spoke up to reassure his friend, barely believing his own words. The problem was going to be his and Serah’s ability to continue stopping them, and they were already drawing themselves thin. Noel took a step to prep for rushing the group of…six…seven, trying to come up with some kind of strategy . Problem was, none of the ideas would be any good for solving the actual problem. Slicing through Cie’th was still only a patching the wound – and it wasn’t one of those patches that was pleasant to look at, Noel reminded himself when a chill crept up his neck. They needed the cure. If they could make these people normal again, that would be absolutely fantastic. If they could manage to only stop the swarm, though, Noel would take that solution too. Right now, it seemed better that he and Serah survive than they get themselves killed to save people that might be long gone anyway. That was a miserable solution, but Noel held to one truth – this is a paradox if we can fix the timeline. These people might survive a different future.

Serah broke him from his reverie. ”What?”, he asked her even before he turned to see what it was she was doing. As soon as Noel turned to where he thought her to be, though, a flash of pink rushed through his line of sight, drawing a gasp from the hunter. What was she doing? He watched her run off a few seconds, confused, before he saw it a little above and ahead of her. And it was heading for the railing. Noel didn’t take the time to process exactly what it was. He wouldn’t know anyway. He just needed to make sure Serah didn’t kill herself going after it. ”Serah! Wait!” Instinct almost convinced him to dart off and…do something to stop her, but Noel made it no more than two steps before a spell from a Cie’th deterred him, landing between him and the departing Serah and sending him rocking back on his heels. He grit his teeth with anticipation for what it was she was about to do, not wanting to watch but nonetheless spellbound. She climbed…jumped…and she got it. Noel muttered a relieved string of near-words under his breath when he realized she was holding on, but he was still tempted to go after her. He could grab her and reel her back in or something if it…no, no….it was coming back their way. Noel shifted his eyes over his shoulder just long enough to see the Cie’th starting to crowd again. Right, he couldn’t let them reel her in. Quickly bringing his hands together and combining the Aero spells he formed in each, Noel unleashed it with a yell at the grouped Cie’th and blew a hole right in the middle of them.

Then, eyes went to Serah again, his chest starting to heave with panted breaths and the cold rain really getting to him. ”Okay!”, he managed to strongly call to her, watching nervously again as she…did whatever it was she was going to do to bring it down. What Noel saw was not the machine going down, but instead Serah. The fall wasn’t nearly as bad as the one from off of the above railing, though, so prepping himself as he saw her hands slip from the machine, Noel shifted his grip on the smaller of his blades and cocked his arm. A forward motion, and it flew smoothly from his hand, plunging into the wobbling, weakened device a couple of seconds later.

Words - 904
Muse - Excellent!
Notes - For great justice![/size]