infinity zone

From July 2008. Wow, took me ages to put this up, huh?

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Before meeting Chloe, Walter had thought the knights of Gadoria were all but a lost cause. With the monarchy and the central government in Baltoga scattered, and almost all of the military bases decimated by the relentless assault of the Nerifes Cannon, Gadorian forces faced the decision of certain death versus absorption into Crusand's ranks.

Several Gadorian knights, known for their sense of honor, chose death over being forced to join arms against their former allies.

He found it easiest not to talk to Chloe about her past. The girl had already lost her country, as well as countless friends and family members; it was hardly a polite topic to breach with a new acquaintance.

Norma, on the other hand, found no problem in asking about anything and everything. It made evenings very awkward for everyone.

So it really came as no surprise that, when the opportunity to avoid another uncomfortable evening arrived, Walter and Chloe leapt at the chance.

"A ruin, huh? I knew I was traveling with you guys for a reason!"

Walter gave his friend an unimpressed look, joining Chloe at the ledge to point out the odd pillars that were almost completely hidden by leafy trees.

"What a weird place for any sort of building," Norma commented, hopping right past her two traveling companions to land on a lower ridge. "Kinda looks out of place." She stood there with her arms akimbo, tilting her head this way and that as she contemplated their next action.

Chloe was the next to descend, securing her scabbard at her side as she stepped over the edge. "We're well over a day's way from the closest road, and there's no signs of trailblazing, old or new, down this slope. I doubt the ruin is Gadorian."

"Could be from the Kingdom of Terises era." Norma continued down the slope, skidding short distances between ledges as she went along.

Walter was right behind the two girls, grimacing as clouds of dust were kicked into his face along the way. He spoke with a slight rasp as his damaged lungs dealt with the dust. "You think everything is from that era. There aren't any rivers or lakes nearby."

"Rivers, maybe not. Lakes? Possibly. How about ponds?" There was a singsong lilt to the brunette's question as she headed towards the treeline.

Walter muttered something under his breath, rolling his eyes. "Radiants didn't live in ponds."

"I have scientific proof that Shining Ones were like giant amphibians!" It was like an inside joke between the two, with only Norma fueling the fire. "Someday, we'll find a giant lillypad in one of these ruins!"

"No, we won't." The best way to derail Norma's thought process was by stopping it in its tracks. And since Walter couldn't very well push her off the slope... "Rexalian?"

"The Holy Rexalian Empire doesn't use pillars in its architecture," Chloe interjected, shaking her head and briefly dusting at her belt as she reached level ground. "But ... maybe they aren't pillars? This area did belong to the empire until about a century ago."

"The sooner we get there, the sooner we can find out!" The youngest of the trio pumped her fist in the air, her bubble wand raised like some sort of lethal weapon. "Let's go, let's go!"

As Norma charged into the forest blindly, Chloe glanced over at her more exasperated companion. It was obvious that this was a fairly common occurrence. "You're a very dedicated apprentice, Delss."

Walter knew it was supposed to be a compliment, but it did little to soothe the beginnings of a headache.

I can't find my notebook with my full version of this drabble. ARGH. I really wanted to write everything down, right this second, but I don't remember how this started.



Walter and Chloe had a silent understanding. They didn't talk about their pasts.

Unfortunately, this understanding did not extend to Norma. With her two traveling companions doing their best impressions of brick walls in front of the camp fire, Norma was left filling the silence with whatever she could think of.

Questions. Random questions. Invasive questions. Questions, questions, questions.

“Everyone, we will resume the tour in half an hour. Please be sure to refill your canteens in the nearby stream; we will be walking up to the top of the shrine for the second half of our tour.”

Walter sourly picked at his sandwich, only biting into it after Norma prodded him with her bubble straw. “Don’t look so glum, Wally; we’ll find some loaded ruins sooner or later!”

“I’m not glum.”

“Well, you’re looking more sourpussy than usual.” Norma gave her apprentice another poke, tilting her head. She had been roaming around the area the tourists were eating their lunches in, looking for possible secret passages. “Something wrong?”

With a sigh, Walter waved his sandwich in Norma’s face. “There were spider webs all over my food. How the hell did that happen?”

The brunette shrugged, briefly crossing her eyes to look at the offending food item. “Maybe a spider climbed into your pack? Or maybe-- maybe you picked up an egg sac somewhere! Did you check for baby spiders?”

There was a long silence between the two. A twitching eyebrow. An expression slowly shifting from grumpiness to surprise to…

“That’s gross. Where do you come up with these things?” the young man asked in his raspy voice, exasperated.

“Hey, you’re the one eating that thing still, Wally. But no worries! We can follow some of these tourists back to the closest village, and then you can eat something not covered with spider eggs!”

This time, Walter didn’t bother saying anything. With an unreadable expression, he wrapped his sandwich up and shoved it back into his pack. Norma gave him a querulous stare as he stood up and dusted off his pants.

“We’re leaving.”

“Wait, what?”

“We’re leaving.”

“Aww, Wally! Don’t be--”

“We’re leaving. Now.”

Norma continued to protest even as Walter, coughing the entire way, marched back towards the forest.

So much for going to sleep at a decent time. I hate that nagging feeling of "Must finish writing this thing," especially when there's no good reason to heed it. Whatever. I'm going to hate myself in the morning anyway. Ugh.

Title: Rediscovery
Fandom: Tales of Legendia
Characters: Madame Musette, Walter
Summary: "She believed that Nerifes brought him to her. She did not know why, and she was hardly in the position to question."
Notes: Definitely not a finished idea. Title could change. ...Lots of things could change with this. I could just trash the idea; I'm not even sure I should be writing this.

( Rediscovery, part 1 )

“What the hell is that thing?!”

It was worth the pain in his throat, just to voice his horror over the monster they had unwittingly woken up. It was big, had a reptilian maw as wide as Walter’s head, wore something that may have once resembled leather armor, and wielded a rusted-over sword and shield.

It was some sort of skeletal lizardman.

“Grave!”

A stone spire erupted from the ground, ramming right into the skeletal creature and sending it into the air. Walter backed away, hearing Norma shuffling even faster behind him as the lizardman-- landed?

A skeleton with a sense of balance. Great.

“Wally, stop daydreaming!”

The warning was unnecessary, but Walter was not able to say as much with a sword suddenly baring down on him. His fingertips glowed fiercely, and he caught the monster’s hand and tried to disarm it. His efforts were hampered by Norma’s numerous Fire Walls giving out, plunging the room into darkness.

“Norma!” Walter couldn’t afford to waste his breath, but losing sight of the lizardman could very well mean losing his head next.

“Fire Wall!”

The Ferines cursed inwardly as fire flared up before his eyes, shielding his face and hurrying away from the erected spell that Norma had thrown between him and the monster. He rasped for breath, coughing onto the back of his hand noisily. “Did that-- Did that work?”

For a full moment, there was nothing except their breathing and the crackle of magical fire.

And then the lizardman marched through the spell.

On fire.

“Er… Guess it didn’t,” Norma managed. It was obvious by her tone that she was just a little flabbergasted about what to do next. When in doubt… “Go go go, Wally!”

“It’s on fire,” Walter protested in a half-strained whisper, backing away from the undead creature and turning enough to glare at Norma. “This is your fault; you do something!”

“Hey, who is the master around here? You’ve gotta do what I-- eeeaah!” Norma stopped as she felt something displace the air behind her, spinning around to see another bone lizardman. She had barely missed the club that had been aimed to strike her across the back. “Where the heck did you come from?!”

“Less talking, more--” A cough strangled out the last part of Walter’s sentence, and he hissed as he instead focused on a spell. “Aqua Edge!”

A disc of water spun into existence, smacking into the lizardman directly in front of the blond and dousing a good portion of the fire. Ignoring Norma’s plight in favor of his, Walter lunged at the lizardman and sent them both flying into the pillars of magic fire.

“Stupid, stupid…” Norma muttered repeatedly, risking a glance over to where her companion had disappeared. She danced out of the way as the undead lizardman swung its sword at her, one hand glowing as she pulled together another Grave eres.

And another. And another.

And then a Fire Wall, since the last one was beginning to die out.

“Hah! Take that! Try to keep me from whatever you’re hiding and you’ll get smashed!”

The lizardman skeleton clearly wasn’t meant to take so much abuse; the third Grave eres had shattered its torso and decimated its legs, sparing the treasure hunter further grief as she cheered herself over the victory. Looking away from the magical fire, Norma listened for any sounds from Walter before moving around at all. Familiar, unsteady rasping could be heard just beyond the light of the Fire Wall.

Throwing out another Fire Wall to help her see around, Norma marched over to where the boy was catching his breath on the floor. She leaned over, giving him a smile and patting his turbaned head. “Good job, Wally; you're the best apprentice I've ever had! C’mon! Let’s take a look around now.”

Walter could only glare weakly after Norma as she headed off to the hole she had blown into the far wall earlier. Wiping at his mouth distractedly, he muttered under his breath as he followed after his enthusiastic ‘master.’

“I hate treasure hunting.”

Guess who just stayed up working on Walter's profile?

Clearly, I am absolutely insane for being up at this hour. I even have work tomorrow today. Whoops!

Oh well. My sleeping habits have been messed up since I got sick two weeks ago, anyway. I'll fall back into some semblance of normalcy now that I'm working again. Speaking of work, my old coworkers were really happy to see me when I came in today. I even got hugs from my senior manager and another teammate. Haha, even the director of the department stopped to talk to me. It was really cool. It didn't even feel like I'd been gone for a month.

Sucks that they're not looking to hire another technical editor. I think I'd really love to work there, after being there for a year before. Maybe next year? Hopefully.

Finished another Legendia AU drabble. Whoo hoo!

( Tales of Legendia AU - The First Night )

And welcome to my LJ, ToDR peeps. ♥ I rarely make f-locked posts, so ... this is all a formality. But great to have you here!

Title: What You Fight For
Fandom: Tales of Legendia
Characters: Walter (mentioning of Senel and Shirley)
Summary: "The Merines he believes in doesn’t exist."
Notes: The boldfaced-italicized text is inspired by Walter's conversations with Musette at ToDR. The setting is canon, though. His final moments. So much delusional angst.

( What You Fight For // His hand won’t reach her. Can’t reach her. She isn’t really there. )

“I hate treasure hunting.”

“Aww, Wally, you haven’t even given it a chance yet.”

“We’re hovering in what seems to be an underground cavern after you tripped some sort of trap.” Never mind the fact that they wouldn’t even be hovering if Walter didn’t happen to have the ability to fly.

“…What’s your point?”

Walter just stifled a cough and turned it into a sigh, his descent into the darkness slow as he continued holding on to Norma’s arms. “I can’t see anything.”

“Maybe we should’ve brought those torches after all.”

“Stop squirming. You’re making it hard to hold you.”

“Hey, you try being in my position and holding still. Let go of my hand for a sec, Wally.”

“Are you cra-- Norma, stop it--”

Walter winced as the glowing of Norma’s fingernails stung his eyes, and he loosened his grip enough for the girl to haphazardly swing from one of his arms. His arm ached immediately, and he feared careening straight into a cavern wall he couldn’t see even as he heard Norma’s voice again.

“Fire Wall!”

Magical fire erupted from the ground—the ground that was surprisingly close, now that Walter could see it. There were no distinct noises from the darkness, meaning there were at least no monsters in the vicinity. …If monsters could have survived down wherever they were, at least.

Norma let out a pleased little sound as Walter released her hand, shaking her arms kick-start her circulation and securing her bubble straw to her belt; she had grabbed it to cast the crystal eres earlier, and she hummed cheerily as she approached the burning pillars of fire.

“Okay, death trap averted! Hmm… What’s next?”

“Can we leave yet?”

“No way! The adventure’s just begun!” Norma looked over her shoulder at her reluctant apprentice, grinning. “Let’s just throw a few more eres around and light this place up!”

“…And what if we burn this entire place down?”

Norma stomped her foot a few times, and at first Walter couldn’t help but think she was throwing a tantrum. But then, “We’re standing on stone, Wally. It’ll be fine! Let those fire eres rip!”

Walter mumbled something and coughed, turning away from the dying Fire Wall to concentrate on his crystal eres. “KenOres!”

He released the Land Burner eres with a wave of his hand, the burst of flame running across the ground and illuminating anything nearby as it went. The fire immediately went out when it struck a wall, and with the Fire Wall gone, the cavern fell back into darkness.

“There’s a wall over that way,” Walter reported unhelpfully.

“Geez, are you gonna make me do all the hard work?” Norma snorted in the darkness, tapping her foot as she considered her next plan of action. “You owe me gald for an orange gel later.”

“I thought that’s why we were here?”

“Nuh uh. That gald’s coming out of your apprentice pay, buster!”

“I get paid?”

“Not after this hunt, you don’t!”

While Walter tried to digest this information in his disbelieving stupor, Norma set out casting several Fire Walls to light up the area. The cavern—or room, as it really looked to be now—was higher than it was wide, and even then it looked like the distance would not have killed a person.

Just, you know, break many important bones in a person’s body.

“You see an exit anywhere?”

“Other than the one in the ceiling? No.”

“Hmm…”

“I’m surprised you’re not suggesting we blow a hole through something.”

“…Genius, Wally! Master’s taught you so well!”

The blond twitched as he watched Norma’s fingernails flare with magic again. Just a little.

Your name is…

Delques.

Black wings. That’s … a little ominous, wouldn’t you think?

No one wanted to call me the wings of death. But secretly, they did. The wings that would clear the way. The killing wings.

What a heavy burden…

It isn’t. No. Not anymore.

What do you mean?

I’m dead.

No, you aren’t.

…I’m not?

No… No, you aren’t.

Then … what is this?

It might be a dream.

I don’t talk to myself in my dreams.

Silly… You aren’t. You’re talking to me.

You? Who are you?

My name is Fennes.

The one who prays. The wishing one.

I think I’ve heard … the dreaming one, too.

Are you dreaming?

Are you?

…You said I was, didn’t you?

I didn’t. You might be.

I don’t understand.

I know I’m not awake. You’re the first I’ve talked to in a long, long time.

So … we are dreaming.

We might be. …But that’s not important.

It isn’t?

You’re … going to be leaving soon.

Am I dying?

You’re going to leave me soon. It’s safer that way.

What about you, Fennes?

I’m still asleep.

How do I … wake you up?

…

Let me help you.

You can barely help yourself now. …Grow stronger.

Fennes…

I’ll be waiting for you to come back. Stronger. And then … maybe you can help me.

All right.

…You’re the last Ferines on the Legacy. Please escape, and someday, come back for me.

I will. I will.

It’s time to wake up.

"I told you there'd be treasure!" Norma practically sang as the stone wall slammed shut behind them.

"I don't see anything," Walter said mildly, frowning back at the door before forward. The way ahead was pitch black, and it was only the cracks in the wall behind them that provided the passageway any light at all.

"There's a secret passage, Wally -- that means there's treasure!"

Walter leveled an unimpressed look at his shorter traveling companion, who promptly ignored him in favor of taking a few steps forward. She had called upon her eres a little bit so there was a little more light. "Or there's a death trap that's waiting for us," he suggested, his own fingertips glowing as he followed after her.

"You are such a worrywa-- aaaaah--!" There was a short blur of blue as Norma suddenly disappeared into the darkness.

"Norma!" The shout came unbidden, and Walter's throat ached a little as he covered the short distance between them with a running jump. His fingers immediately found Norma's wrist, and he hissed as he crawled closer to the hole Norma had fallen into.

"Ow, ow, ow! Not so hard, Wally!"

"Not now, Norma." He growled, trying to get decent footing so he could pull the girl out of the hole. Norma had luckily grabbed the edge before she could fall into whatever oblivion the darkness covered up, but there didn’t seem to be any way she could help him with his task.

It took several tense moments in the dark before Walter’s feet found purchase on the uneven stones beneath him, and he carefully pulled Norma to safety. “Be more careful,” the Ferines wheezed, coughing onto the back of one hand as he began to stand.

“I wasn’t not being careful,” protested Norma, stumbling to her feet and staggering a few feet in the direction they had come from. “How was I supposed to know tha-- aaaaaah!”

Walter had a little more warning for this pitfall than the last; the rocks had at least scraped against each other as they fell away, and he lunged from a kneeling position towards Norma. Even in the absolute darkness, he was able to find Norma’s fingers clutching the stone, and he quickly grabbed at her wrists.

“W-- Wally--” Norma gasped, her arms already aching from the first fall.

“Not now, Norma,” Walter repeated his earlier words, flat on his stomach this time around and scrabbling for a way to pull the girl up.

For a moment, there were only sounds of rubber scraping against stone and heavy breathing.

Then, “Wally, this thing isn’t gonna hold.”

There was a tense silence.

“What?”

Disbelief colored the exclamation, and Walter avoided coughing down on his friend by turning his head away. But it was quickly becoming obvious what Norma was talking about: the stones underneath him were sinking and falling away.

“Does this count as a death trap?!”

Walter would have answered with some angry words, but he was already falling by then.