Besaid, then Macalania Woods: Saturday, Early Evening, Fandom Time (NFB)
Yuna
Yuna looked around. This whole trip had gotten a lot larger than she'd expected, but... maybe that was a good thing. "I think we should come up with a plan of action before we go," she suggested diffidently.
Something more than 'show up and kick the Guado's butts until they learned some sense'.
Lulu
"A very good idea," Lulu agreed. "This isn't likely to be easy."
Which was... the understatement of a lifetime, perhaps. Not that they hadn't done not-easy things before.
Rikku
"Nothing ever is," Rikku grumbled. She was trying, but she was still unable to shut off all the welling resentment she had. "Can we threaten them or something? Come to the conference, or we'll ... maim you. I don't know."
... which was not much of a deterrent, to people who were determined to die. Hrm.
Yuna
"I don't think that would be very effective," Yuna said sadly. The whole thing with the Guado made her sad. They shouldn't want to die!
"There has to be some way to make them realize that what they're doing is silly. That it won't solve anything." Yuna just didn't know what that way could be.
Rikku
"So ... we go and play nice?" Rikku asked, raising an eyebrow at her cousin. "Ask them politely to come talk to people, promise that the Ronso don't hate them? Because the Ronso do hate them, and I don't really think I blame the Ronso."
They had let Yuna pass, had let her climb Mt. Gagazet. They had fallen into line behind her, promising to protect her from whoever might be pursuing them.
That had been Seymour, with the Guado, and he had killed most of the Ronso that day.
Yuna
Yuna's frown deepened at the reminder of what had happened to the Ronso. What had happened because of her.
"I don't think that would work either," she admitted. "You know the Guado. If you're just polite to them they're polite back. While they ignore you."
Lulu
"If we want a reaction," Lulu said, "any kind of reaction, we need something that will force them to do so. Something they can't ignore."
Rikku
"Maybe we tell them to sack up and come to the conference so the Ronso can kill them," Rikku huffed. "They want to die anyway. Why wait around in the woods? Show up and let the Ronso have the honors."
And if they couldn't talk the Ronso down? Fuck it, they'd tried.
Rikku was in a less-than-cooperative mood.
Yuna
Yuna smiled just a bit at Rikku's joke. Because... it was a joke, right?
And then her innate need to save everyone ever kicked in. "That wouldn't help in the long term, though. They need to decide that life is worth living." This suggestion didn't actually come with a plan attached, though.
Rikku
Rikku ... couldn't think of a way to convince them of that. If there was one. Hell, she wasn't sure their lives were worth living.
They were going in circles. The hell with it.
"Maybe there is no plan," she said. "We can't know until we get there, what they're going to say, or how they're gonna react when we try this. We go, and ... we shake them until they snap out of it. We're blunt if we have to be, or ... nice, if we have to be, or maybe we all start playing Good Cop/Bad Cop."
Which would be a better reference if the other two had ever watched the cop shows Rikku was fond of, in Fandom.
"I think we just need to go. Pack up, head to Macalania, and try talking to them. The sooner, the better."
Lulu
"It might be for the best," Lulu said. "If nothing else, speaking to them would... confirm the situation."
Yuna
"I... think that might work," Yuna decided. This was... way outside her area of expertise. She wasn't exactly good at convincing people of things.
So she was totally willing to let Rikku take the lead.
Rikku
Rikku loved these woods. She remembered the first time she'd seen them, crystalline blue and sparkling. She had been screaming her head off, through the Thunder Plains, and then suddenly, the storm stopped, and they were in a forest like she never could have imagined.
The ice on the lake was thawing, without the Fayth. The temple had fallen through. The woods might be next.
So the Guado had come here, to die. It was pathetic, and spineless. And it angered her. This was the most beautiful place she'd ever known. They should have found somewhere ugly to go and die. Like a desert, with smoke and fire and bodies strewn on the ground. Sounded good to her.
She shivered, without realizing it. No idea what they were going to say to the Guado. She was still scared she was going to yell.
Maybe she needed to.
Tromell
Sure, it was beautiful, but it was also peaceful. And until the Guado arrived, it had been empty. There were no faces here to remind them of the horrors they had committed, except their own. And though they didn't deserve the peace and quiet, it left them alone with their thoughts, each in his or her on private misery. Up ahead, a few Guado were clustered together, near Tromell. They weren't sure whether to revere or hate him, and so they just watched him blankly. Tromell looked up as the newcomers approached, and sighed. If they wanted to talk to him, he'd talk. If they wanted to kill him, he'd let them.
Lulu
"Tromell," Lulu... greeted. If ice could be said to greet someone, for that's what laced her words. "You look..."
She almost said, 'well', but even she couldn't lie that well.
Yuna
"Hello, Trommell," Yuna said, her tone softly polite as she offered him a little bow. "It is good to see you again."
Which, somehow, she meant with complete sincerity.
Tromell
"Ohhhh, High Summoner Yuna," Tromell answered in a voice that wasn't quite a moan and wasn't quite respectful servitude. "And your Guardians. Forgive me for the grief I have caused you..."
He was asking forgiveness, but only out of politeness. He certainly didn't expect it, and he didn't want it, either. Yuna and her Guardians had more reason to hate the Guado than anyone, and if she wanted revenge, it would be her right.
Rikku
"No," Rikku said tersely. She wasn't supposed to pick a fight, so she was going to drop that and move on. "We got your letter. You need to come to the conference."
See? She was almost being polite. Close enough. They were here to mope about all the people they killed. Fuck that.
Tromell
"The conference?" Tromell asked. "Noooo, we oughtn't. The Guado have no right to impose on the people of Spira, after our past transgressions. We thank you most graciously for the small amount of kindness you have shown by thinking of us, but we are not worthy."
Rikku
"We didn't say you were worthy," Rikku snapped. She was holding on to her temper with a very fine string, right now, and this bastard was tap-dancing on it. "We said you have to go. And you do. We didn't invite you out of kindness. Everyone has to be there or it won't work. So stop whining and go."
She'd hated him when he was a smug, self-righteous prick, destroying evidence and framing them for murder, and she'd hated him when he led the Guado along on the horrible missions Seymour laid out for them. She hated him even more now, when he was feeling really, really sorry for himself.
Lulu
Lulu stepped forward, placing a hand on Rikku's shoulder. "Tromell," she repeated. "You've made... mistakes." Which, said thus, was an undeserved kindness in itself. "Perhaps you should considering trying to make up for them?"
Tromell
"Our sins are too great," Tromell insisted. "There is no atoning for what we Guado have done. What can we do, other than allow Spira to go on without us?"
Rikku
And there, that very fine string snapped.
"This is pathetic!" Rikku shouted. The volume even surprised her. "Are you kidding me? It's really hard, so you're just gonna give up? You killed people! Lots of them! And now the people you didn't manage to kill are trying to pick up the fucking pieces, and you can't even do that! You'd rather come out here to mope around like the spineless, sorry bastards you are!"
She was gesturing, furiously, seething with pent-up rage. Tromell would be lucky if she didn't punch him. But if she started, she wasn't sure she could stop.
"You used to be a Guado, but now you're just a joke. You're gonna give up and die, but oh, you don't even have enough of a spine to do that for yourselves. Maybe if you wait around long enough, someone else will do it for you. You know what? If this is really all you're fucking good for, if you can't be bothered to help anyone you've hurt because it's just too damn hard, then you could at least have the balls to strap some bricks to your feet, and jump into the lake, and fucking drown."
Tromell
Commit suicide? No, he couldn't. He still, on a deep, visceral level, wanted to live, and he hated himself for that. "We have decided the fate of too many," he reasoned. "Our fate is for you to decide. Especially you, Al Bhed, who we have hurt the most." He sighed. "You probably wish us dead -- I do not blame you. If you want to kill us... I would let you."
And if she didn't wish them dead... what then?
Rikku
He would let her.
He was offering her his life. Home was a burned pile of wreckage, a hollowed-out husk filled with the bodies of her loved ones. More Ronso were dead than Al Bhed.
Push him to his knees. Make him beg for forgiveness. Slash his throat. Throw his body into the lake. He would let her. And then he would have paid. For what he did to her family.
And what would she be, then? Not a Guardian. Tromell wasn't attacking civilians. He wasn't a danger to her Summoner.
She would be a murderer.
"Your deaths," she said, slowly, her stomach twisting, "would change nothing. You can't give me my home back. Or my friends. I won't sleep better knowing that the Guado are dead. Spira won't be any better off. It wouldn't bring me any satisfaction, or peace. You would be dead and the conference would still be falling apart and there would still be war, brewing in Kilika and I would still shiver every time I walked through Guadosalam. I don't want your deaths."
The astonishing thing was that it was true. She didn't want them to die. She wouldn't shed a tear over them, if they were gone, but this? This wasn't what she wanted, either. Not just for the conference, but because ...
"There's been too much death," she said. "Sin is gone. Spira is saved. No more stupid, pointless death."
Tromell
"It would NOT be pointless," Tromell countered. "Our deaths would bring justice. ...But YOU... You would instead show us mercy. You are wise, young Al Bhed, and we are... grateful."
He didn't say wise for an Al Bhed, because he was practiced at the art of diplomacy. Also, he was too busy bowing obsequiously.
"I am listening. Tell me again: what could this conference hope to accomplish?"
Rikku
It was very, very good that he hadn't said that out loud. If he had, she might have changed her mind about killing him.
"It's not mercy," she said darkly. "It's not even about you."
The anger was fading, bitter embers mixing with a strange sort of hopelessness. More death, and more after that. The endless spiral ...
No. That was the whole point of this, wasn't it?
"We just want to get everyone to talk. Sit down, and hear each other out. Clear the air. No one's doing that, right now. Maybe we could work out some of the ugliness going around. But if you cancel, someone else will, too, and soon we've got no one going."
She squared her shoulders, trying her hardest to stare him down. "So if you're really sorry -- not just saying it, but really, truly sorry -- then have the guts to come face the Al Bhed and the Ronso and say that you're sorry. If you want to make amends, then park your asses at that conference and ask everybody how you can make things right. Forgiveness is earned. It won't be easy. Plenty of people hate you, for what you did. But if I could come the whole way out here -- face you, and ask you this, knowing what you've done to me? Then I don't want to hear the least bit of bitching, from you. Living's always harder. That doesn't give you an excuse not to do it."
Tromell
Tromell sighed. "I... cannot speak for all the Guado," he announced. "With the death of Maester Seymour, we have no ruler, no one to lead us. But... I will come."
Rikku
"Good," Rikku said flatly. "See? That's all you had to say. Was that really so hard?"
She turned on her heel to march off. Sick of him, sick of the Guado, tired, frustrated, and suddenly, for no reason she could discern, sad.
Lulu
"Tromell," Lulu said, as Rikku left earshot. "I'm glad you've decided to come." She paused. "But if I were you, when you come, I would have something constructive to add. I can't imagine most people present thinking kindly of you otherwise."
Tromell
"We have nothing constructive to add," Tromell told her. "If they do not think kindly of us, that is no more than we deserve. But... we will come. And perhaps we will think of something."
Lulu
Lulu nodded firmly. "Do so," she said. "Or perhaps the Guado truly do have no further place in Spira -- no matter what trust Lady Yuna may place in you."
(OOC: preplayed with the fantabulous mistressofblack, summoninghope, and sarcasm_guy guest-starring as Tromell. Open to anyone who might be on Spira, including the one she doesn't realize is coming to visit, but she's probably not going to answer her phone tonight.)