fandomhigh | Freelance Treasure Hunting, Monday, Period 5, Class #1

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Freelance Treasure Hunting, Monday, Period 5, Class #1

As the students arrived, they would probably notice a woman clad in form-fitting black leather perched on a picnic table, swinging her feet as she waited for them to arrive. Some students, if they had met her, might be shocked at the woman's resemblance to Aeryn Sun.

Not that Vala knew the girl's last name, but that wasn't the point.

"Good afternoon, class. My name is Vala Mal Doran and I'll be your instructor for this class. As you know, this class will be about how to make your living as an interdimensional space pirate."

"Now, the first question you may have is why you would want to be an interdimensional space pirate, er, treasure hunter, in the first place. Clearly, you have much to learn if this is your question--because first, it's about fun. There's excitement, and danger, and your adrenaline rushes, and it's a wonderful feeling to know that you have done your best at every step of the process, and that the money you hold in your hand at the end of the day has been if not precisely honestly earned...well, you still have it in your hand, so it hasn't been used as bribes or bail money, and that's always a bonus."

"But enough about me," she said, getting up and wandering around, "I want to know about you--your names, where you're from, how long it takes to get there, the most convenient travel route, and any valuable or mythical objects that, if you were from your universe, you would attempt to appropriate and sell. Also, if you know of any pitfalls to obtaining these objects, either mystical or legal, please feel free to elaborate."

"Don't be shy," she coaxed, after a minute, "Who would like to go first?"

[ooc: ~~Please wait for~~ OCD is up!]

[daughter of ooc: Going to run errands for a few hours, will pick up pings when I get back.]

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Rikku laughed. "I met him! He said it's gonna be a class assignment to bother our teachers, and then he said that we can't get in trouble 'cause he's telling us to do it. I'm gonna make him cookies. This is gonna be great."

"Sin is ... was ... what spent a thousand years destroying our world. Okay, that and the crazy stupid religion that was supposed to get rid of it. Do this, do that, no technology, no learning, keep these secrets and be good enough and one day, this monster will go away all by itself." Her eyes flashed with anger. "And people who don't believe this garbage, don't even bother with. And in the meantime, throw summoners after it so the rest of you can live in peace."

Evie giggled nervously but with real amusement at the idea of bothering other teachers, but looked hopeful. "Well, then. As long as we can't get in trouble...."

"Oh, heavens. How horrid. I'm sorry," Evie said, looking like she wanted to pat Rikku. "We have quite a few narrow-minded people who subscribe to one religion or another here on Earth, too. None of whom I'm met in Fandom, thank goodness. And some of them have sacrificed others to their ends as well. The Crusades, for starters." She sighed. "But it's not like that any more?"

"Are you in that class, too?" Rikku bounced a little. Evie hadn't seemed the mischevious type. Ah, how quickly they were corrupted.

"We had Crusaders, but they're all dead now. They went out to fight Sin with normal weapons and got blown up." Rikku lifted a shoulder. "Life expectancy's kinda low on Spira. Sin's gone now, but there are still fiends, so I guess it's better. I'm just sick of it all. You know?"

"Yes. I don't know how, I didn't sign up for it," Evie said, sounding bewildered. She'd never had a class she didn't sign up for before. "And of course you're sick of it! Who wouldn't be?" She looked sad. "There's a war being fought in my time, too. It's been going on for about three years now. The histories here say it only lasts another year, but I'd just as soon it were over already."

"I had that happen last time. I ended up in a class about Gods instead of one about Science. I don't know how I passed that." She made a face.

"I'm sorry. About your war, I mean. Can you go back after it's over? Although sometimes that's just as hard. We've ... ours is done now. I mean, we beat Sin. But we need to rebuild everything and there are just ... bits and pieces. It's kinda tiring."

"I could, but my family's back there. They sent me away to be safe, but I feel so guilty, sometimes." Evie fiddled with her shiny blue sparkle pen. "My brother got drafted into the latest push in the Middle East, and I'm terribly worried about him, though that's not the worst front of the war." She looked up, and said earnestly, "Only once you start looking at the time in between, the whole twentieth century looks like one to skip large chunks of. But it's home. I *can't* just leave it." She sighed. "Rebuilding must be exhausting too. But it's good that you get a break here. And you should get a chance to finish your education, at the very least." At least, that's what Evie always tried to tell herself.

"Oh, wow. I'm sorry, that's awful. And I know about guilty. Don't let it make you do stupid things, okay? They love you and want you to be happy and totally don't need you playing with dark mojo just 'cause you're somewhere good and they're not." Rikku nodded very seriously after this. She was Learning from her Experiences. More or less.

"I guess that's the problem with seeing the future. If you knew, you might skip it, but maybe the good parts are worth sticking around for. And I'm sure your brother will be okay. And then you can tell him all about how crazy your time was here and he'll totally not believe a word of it. Right?"

"I don't know if this is a break. I came here to learn, we just don't know enough to rebuild, but ..." She bit her lip, trying to decide how much to confess. "I think I could go home now and we'd have enough to start. And maybe get pretty far. But ... I like it here. I don't want to go back."

"Oh, my mother would have such words for me if she even got a *hint* that I'd ever tried something like that," Evie said, alarmed at the very thought. "So no, I'm not going to attempt something like that. I'm sure I'd make a hash of it, in any event. Why, do you know someone who did?" she asked innocently.

"Actually, Jonathan knows all about Fandom-- he visited last October. It was all I could do to keep him from getting drunk at Caritas and starting a poker game with the other relatives visiting. He's a very good brother, but not exactly responsible." And the understatement of 1917 award goes to.... "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"And I, for one, hope that you get to stay," Evie added. "What do you need to learn in order to rebuild?"

"Uh, kinda, yeah?' Rikku blushed and looked down. "I had a friend who kinda-died and wasn't supposed to and was stuck in a non-dimension and I thought I could fix it and I'm really sorry about that and totally, totally won't do it again. Honest."

"Oh, he came to visit you?" She looked up again with a bright smile. "That sounds cool. And boys seem particularly bad at the responsible-thing. I have an older brother myself, and he's kinda ... don't ask, really. I think Mom dropped him on his head or something."

Her smile was a bit more wistful now, but she nodded back. "I hope so, too. I've been sending information back. Oh! It's just ... our past had all this technology and learning and then Sin happened, and Yevon said it was everyone's fault and that all machines were sinful and that things wouldn't be right until they all atoned. So they destroyed the machina and burned the books that told how to make them. For a thousand years we've lived in ruins. All because no one thought to question someone's stupid rules."

"Oh, I'm certain you're sorry!" Evie immediately rushed to say. "And that's... always good to know, that people won't try that again." She smiled brightly. "Next Parents' Weekend, maybe your family can visit, if you're still here? It's not just parents, and mine couldn't attend-- it's anyone who you wish to visit, really. And yes, how can older brothers be such *trouble*? Honestly." She shook her head.

"Good for you!" Evie cheered. "See, that's a lovely reason to stay. And... they burned the books?"

Evie might look close to tears here.

"It wasn't supposed to break anything, honest," she insisted. "I mean, I thought it might get me killed, but it wasn't supposed to hurt anyone else. There's a Parents' Weekend? I wonder if Pops would come in for that." And then pictured Cid spending a whole weekend thrashing around the island. "... Or maybe Yunie instead. Probably a better idea. Yeah."

"They destroyed the books, and the spheres, and the machina, and anyone who disagreed with them." Rikku looked away for a long moment. "How do you even start over, from that?"

"You mustn't do things that dangerous either! Goodness. Certainly not alone. There were rituals for raising the dead in Egyptian books, but they always took so many many priests, and were terribly dangerous," Evie said worriedly. ~~And let's not even talk about Imhotep, that way bad craziness lies.~~ She brightened at the mention of Rikku's family. "Who's Yunie? Your little sister?"

"And I don't know." Evie sighed, looking disconsolate. "They burned the Library at Alexandria here, you know. Thousands of books of knowledge, and they killed the librarians, and... It's utterly unfair. I adore that the internet has *so many* books on it, although it's not the same as actually having a book in your hands." She looked thoughtful. "I suppose you just have to look for all the traces there are."

"He wasn't exactly dead. It's a long story. So I figured, you know, raising the dead, that's bad, but this was just a glitch, and maybe I could fix it. It doesn't matter." She smiled. "Yunie - sorry, Yuna - is my cousin. She's older, and she's the best person ever. She saved the world." Okay, she's proud of her.

"That's awful! Do you know what you lost? I mean, did people find anything? They killed the librarians!?" Rikku shook her head, mouth gaping. "I'm so sorry. And ... that's what people do now. Go around looking for spheres that might have fallen through the cracks. I hope we can find something. And if not ... that's why I'm here." She smiled.

"Splendid!" Evie beamed at Rikku and said, "I'm all for saving the the world." She looked sad when Rikku asked about the Library. "We have indexes and lists from other libraries at the same time, but... who can be sure? It's gone. And it still happens. Baghdad. Berlin..." She shook her head. "We just have to keep writing books I suppose, but it's such a terrible waste." She brightened. "Oh! So those spheres, they have your books? And the, um, machina? Yay!"

"She's wonderful. It was kinda for her, that I was doing everything dangerous anyway. She's okay now, so it's all good."

Rikku sat for a moment, thinking about the libraries. And how Spira fumbled around in the dark most of the time. "You know, it's silly, but it feels like ... like it's kinda worse than killing people, in a weird way. Because all that knowledge is just gone. You don't ever get it back, and who knows what you've taken from everybody." And then she smiled faintly. "Sorry. Spheres are ... you can record memories on them, so if you don't have books on a subject, maybe someone's memories can fill in the breaks. Maybe they recorded something of an important historical kinda event. And machina are ... that's our word for machines and technology and all of it. We Al Bhed didn't follow Yevon, so we go diving out in the ruins and find old mach -- machines and try to take them apart and learn from them, but it's hard."

"I would imagine so," Evie said sympathetically. "But oh, so rewarding! To find something that might have been lost like that, after all that time... Rather like being an archaeologist, really. And the people matter too, but if you can't know the people, the best you can do is keep the their ideas alive."

"An archaeologist?" Rikku wasn't sure she was even pronouncing that right. "Sorry, don't think we have any of those. And ... I don't know. I'd rather save people than ideas, I think, if I had to pick, even if the ideas are more important. But finding the ideas again is at least possible, you know?"

"Oh saving people is much more important, yes." Evie sighed. "It's just not something I'd be any good at. I'm barely able to save myself. Well. Not able at all, really, if we're talking about trolls. But I'm getting better!" she insisted. "But ideas, now, *those* I can help with. An archaeologist is someone who studies the past scientifically, recording and preserving finds such as, oh, tombs and ruins and books and artifacts," she took a breath, "So we can learn from them! And find out how to find more sites, and regain our history. That's what I am going to be."

"It's okay," said Rikku with a grin. "Some people are good at kicking butt, and others aren't. That just means you leave dealing with trolls and fiends to us professionals and get back to whatever important stuff you should be doing." She beamed, then considered. "Also, if you need smoke bombs to help you run away, let me know 'cause I have extra."

"Oooooh. That's like, really neat! We need some of those in Spira, maybe they could find some things and we could get our past back. Find our future. Whoa. That's awesome."

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Freelance Treasure Hunting, Monday, Period 5, Class #1

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