FFX-3 Chat

(A/N): Apparently Tidus isn't the only one being bashed by Nojima.  There's very little love for Brother in here, so I decided to lighten up on the hate. XD Oh, and the radio that Shinra (and Bria) mentioned is apparently meant to be the Commsphere, so I fixed that detail as well (I shall return to Chapter 2 to do the same).


The Celsius sailed through the air in slow velocity; it couldn’t fly any slower without the risk of stalling or worse, crashing. Paine sighed, stuck inside the ****pit listening to everybody’s high-speed conversation. Shinra, the only other one disengaged, sat at his post in front of the monitor, his back turned towards them while immersed in his task. Maybe typing essential calculations for their flight or killing his time with a puzzle, she couldn’t tell. Behind his goggles and full facial mask, nobody could read his expression.
   
“Is the storm approaching in this direction?” Paine said, exploiting their pause in conversation to speak. Buddy, Brother, and Rikku, the three adult Al Bhed who chose to communicate in their native tongue, spoke too fast for Paine to follow. In spite of her decent fluency for the language, she found it almost impossible to understand their belligerent bickering from the actual discussion.

Rikku kept a close watch on the radar. “A huge downpour is heading south where Besaid is. It’s definitely going to blow hard.”
   
“We must inform them at once!” Brother said.
   
“The Commsphere doesn’t work,” Shinra said in a detached tone. “Even though I made sure to replace the last one that broke not too long ago, I’m not receiving any video or audio feedback.” Brother screeched his dissent, but the boy genius contented himself with a shrug. “It’s actually working less and less as time goes by, and it’s not only in Besaid. It’s Kilika as well. I wonder if it’s just in this region, because of the storm.”

Buddy folded his arms, ducking his head in concern. “Why?”
   
“I don’t know. I’m just a kid.”
   
As annoying as the boy could be at times, nobody here knew machines better than him. Paine held him in high regard due to his unparalleled skills. Sure, Gippal knew how to fix them faster and better than anyone back in Djose, as evidenced by repairing Shinra’s rogue communicator which broke in the Farplane, but Shinra’s intelligence far outstripped each and every Machine Faction member combined. Definitely smarter than Brother by a long shot, whose only special talent consisted of venting the most obnoxious rants she had the misfortune of enduring. Paine had no idea what their leader prattled on about, but his constant shouts and wild gestures were already getting on her nerves.

“In this case…” She decided to speak up, yet nobody heard her. Impatient, she snapped. “Shut up!”
   
Brother froze in place, stuck at a ridiculous pose as he jerked his head in her direction, scowling. “...Yes?”
   
“Shouldn’t we hurry back to Besaid before the storm hits? You’ve seen the village, right? Their homes are made of hessian. We have to warn them about this.”
   
Rikku acquiesced without complaint. “If the wind takes their tents, they will lose everything.”
   
Brother looked about ready to cry, collapsing straight into his pilot’s seat where only loud sobs could be heard. Even though they had departed from Besaid like thieves in the night, flying away at top speed, they had nowhere else to go, yet Buddy had made the call in consideration of his friend’s obvious distress. He preferred to keep the heartbroken Brother away from the reunited lovebirds as far as possible. At any rate, the Gullwings continued their discussion without pause, because Brother’s pity party warranted that much little respect from them. How could they when he made it so difficult to be taken seriously?

Paine put a hand to her chin, deep in thought. “But then again, it’s just a storm. I’m sure the inhabitants have survived worse.”
   
“You think so?” Rikku said, skeptical. “Hmm, according to the radar… Oh! It went off! What’s happening? Is the engine overheating?”
   
Shinra twisted around to lean over the top of his seat, shaking his head. “This girl’s have had the last of her days. It's the end of the road for her. A sudden breakdown isn't out of the question, considering it’s supposed to be a millenary device.”
   
“Then, can’t you just build a new one? It’s all right here. You can learn what makes this thing tick and make another one,” Paine said.
   
“Let me think…” Shinra settled back down into his seat, leaning over his custom-made keyboard in rapt thought. “Hmm… I don’t see why not. After all, it’s true that the Al Bhed are comfortable working on machines, but we only know how to use them. Of course, in order to exhume them, discern their functions, recondition them, and understand how to operate them, we had developed an extensive knowledge and skillful dexterity for them. But oddly enough, we still cannot build new ones. Sometimes, I wonder why that is. Don’t you find it kind of strange? I mean, even though Yevon loathed them, people still contributed to their use, yet none of us ever thought to retain a single plan to build machines from the ground up. We might have been able to rediscover new rules and theories of calculations, but only out of a sense of necessity. Our ancestors have left us with nothing, or maybe they were unable to leave anything behind.”
   
Overwhelmed by the scope of his words, Shinra sighed. “Why? Well, I’m afraid that’s the greatest mystery of all.”