No Tears This Time (Open)

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

Of all the duties of a summoner, the Sending was easily the hardest for Yuna to face. Every time she took up her staff and danced, it meant only one thing: more people had violently died, needlessly died, shouldn't have died, wouldn't have died had an outside source not torn them apart. Left alone to wander the universe with their anger at sudden death intact, their lost souls could coalesce into an even greater threat.

This time, she thought with a painful clench of her heart, she wasn't guiding the souls of a small army's soldiers or the scattered casualties of a ruined town. If their information was to be believed, with the possible exception of her guardians, all Spirans had perished in the Ohm's violent strike. Knowing that meant she was likely the last summoner still living---thus the responsibility for their souls fell to her.

Even as she picked up her staff and walked to the center of the observation deck, standing under the red sky as seen through the window, she had her doubts. Without a Farplane, where would they go? Could her prayers reach them this far away? Could one summoner handle so many souls? A total annihilation of her planet and countless others. It was a daunting task to be sure, but just a small pebble on the long journey awaiting this crew.

No matter what happened, she thought forcefully, she owed it to everyone to give it a try. With a strong enough prayer, they would have a chance at final peace.

Her mind made up, Yuna began her solemn dance. There were no hymns, water columns, or sparkling lights this time: just a girl left alone to mourn the deaths in her own way, the entire overwhelming situation putting her rhythm just slightly off.

When the last of her fervent prayers trailed from her mind past the tip of her staff, invisibly entering the universe, she let the rod clatter to the ground and dropped to her knees. Whispering into the humid air, she willed one last thing to be true.

"I'm sorry, everyone. If there's a way to stop this, even a way to right this wrong...I will. I promise you."

Comments

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Phillip rarely moved to the Obs deck to think and read, but at the same time he couldn't help but notice the gentle looking woman who had just recently arrived there. As he watched, he couldn't help but feel something about how she danced. He couldn't place it but it was... sad, maybe. Wistful. Full of practice and yet meaning.

Without noticing it, his body began to shimmer, as streams of light began to emerge from his fingertips, spirals of green zeros and ones in response to the way that she moved. He could feel his body begin to lose cohesion, but he willed it together, gritting his teeth.

What was she doing? He had to know. But respectfully, he waited till the end when she collapsed.

Moving across the floor quickly, and as silent as a ghost, Phillip placed a glowing hand on her shoulder. "It was beautiful," he admitted. "Are you all right?"

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

Yuna hadn't noticed his approach or the shimmering data. It had blended in with her mental image of what a Sending should look like: floating pyreflies and silent reflection. She did notice his touch, tilting her head up to watch him with wide eyes. Was that a glow?

"I'm all right," she insisted, swinging the staff down and using it to push herself up. "I shouldn't have tried to extend myself so far."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"It looked strenuous, but very beautiful," said Phillip, holding out his hand to help her to her feet. "May I ask what it was? A ritual of some sort?"

"Oh, I'm Phillip just as a note."

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

"I'm Yuna," she answered with a small bow once she was on her feet, gently squeezing his hand before letting go. She would have to ask about that last lingering glow. Did it mean he was ill?

"That was a sending," she explained, a sad smile on her face. "When people die suddenly, their souls are left in pain. Their envy of the living deteriorates into anger and hatred, and if left long enough, they lose all memory of who they were and become fiends. The purpose of a sending is to guide their thoughts with my prayers, helping them make peace with death and move beyond it. I've never had to send so many at once before."

That would explain why she seemed especially tired.

[myboggartismoon.livejournal.com]

Having wandered in close to the beginning by sheer luck, Lupin paused a respectful distance away to watch this show. It took no miracle of magic to detect sorrow and sadness in the dance.

When she dropped the staff and fell, though, he moved forward slightly. "Are you all right?"

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

"I'm used to this," she reassured the newcomer, pulling herself and her staff up with a slight smile. "I just needed a moment for one last thought. I hope it reaches them somehow," she trailed off somewhat cryptically.

[myboggartismoon.livejournal.com]

Of course, he had not missed that. "Them?"

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

"The people who died," she answered steadily. "If the Ohm killed everyone as quickly as they say, the lost spirits probably haven't accepted their deaths. If they aren't calmed and guided onward, the hatred will take on a solid form."

That, in a nutshell, was what she was doing.

[kungfu-sexnun.livejournal.com]

Nima knows a sacred dance when she sees one.

She kneels nearby, watching Yuna's display, wondering if she's guessing at the meaning correctly. If she is, then she wants this girl to complete her dance -

Actually, if she's right, she wants to join this dance.

But before she can, the girl ends her prayers, and drops to the ground. Nima hefts herself into the air on a breeze and lands beside her, laying her cool, arrowed hands on the other woman's arm.

"That was a beautiful ceremony," she says, solemn and soft. "I know the spirits are comforted by it."

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

A visitor on the wind. Yuna looks up into the kind face beside her, surprised to say the least. For her to know, to feel...was this woman a summoner, or like them?

"You feel them too?"

[kungfu-sexnun.livejournal.com]

"No."

But she smiles. If Yuna can feel the spirits, then clearly she didn't need Nima to point out what she'd thought their response would be.

"But I know that my sisters would thank you, if they were awake to see you." She takes Yuna's hand and squeezes it in gentle comfort. "I know that if my spirit had seen your dance . . . I would have been comforted by it."

Once again, it hits her sharply that were it not for this future, hers was to be dead before her time.

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

Some sentiments don't warrant a verbal response, and this is one of them. Yuna simply holds to the woman's hands for a few moments, communicating her empathy with her eyes. We live, we die, and somehow through it all we go on.

When she was finally able to speak again, her voice was quiet. "They're so far away from us now, an unfathomable distance, but...they'll always be close to us. Urging us forward, to save life wherever we can."

It's not a lot so far, Yuna thinks. A tiny bud of life in the barren field. But the bud will grow.

[8wings.livejournal.com]

Anwei had come in while the woman was still dancing. Folding herself up on one of the fleshy couches, her knees tucked into one armpit in a rather awkward-looking pose, she watched the rhythm of hands and staff and feet, feeling the grief and hope in each motion.

When the dance was done, she bowed her head and touched her eight fingertips to her forehead.

"That was well done," she said softly.

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

That bowing gesture wasn't what she was used to, but the reverence was there all the same. Yuna walked to Anwei's couch almost in a daze, moving to stand in front of her.

"Thank you. I wasn't sure it would be quite right away from my planet, without the hymn."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"It is the heart, the sincerity behind the ritual that matters. Our clerics work their rites with the frailest materials they can find: chalk, string, dust. They don't believe that things will make a rite stronger; they believe that only sentient will and spirit can do that."

She rose to her feet. "Thank you for sharing your dance with us. Do you want to sit down?"

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

"You're right," Yuna agreed, her spirit lifted somewhat. She took the offer to sit down with a grateful look.

"It wasn't any trouble. I just...hope they were helped."

[projectkr-e-16.livejournal.com]

"That's beautiful." Superboy said. It was the only thing he could say to describe the dance. And despite his normal silence, something about it made him have to say something. Because it was true, he hadn't ever seen anything quite like it before.

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

"I hope so. It's meant to ease the pain of loss," Yuna answered quietly. Largely directed toward the dead, but practice had also taught her that the living were comforted by it too.

[projectkr-e-16.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Superboy lowered his head, "I understand." He sighed. It brought back memories of his friends.

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

Snow was a man of his word. When he and Serah woke up, they were led up to the Obs Deck, so that was naturally the first place he was going to check out. Just in case anybody else was there. Serah woke up a few minutes after he did, so it was clearly obvious that there could be new arrivals who 'slept in' so to speak. The deck had been so full of people when he arrived, so seeing it now, emptied out after it seemed all were out of the caverns and the crew continued on their business - it was strange.

When he spotted Yuna, he had made the motion to walk over to her, opening his mouth to call out to her in greeting. But when she began to dance he stopped short, curious and admittedly, confused. So he watched her for a few minutes in the silence - a silence that only aided to the strange feeling that ran through his veins as he did. It was a feeling of sadness, a look of loneliness from the movements she made. Snow figured it might have had something to do with her being a summoner, but as she continued, he didn't see any magic, any Aeons like he had seen earlier, anything at all. Maybe, he thought, something would happen when she stopped dancing. Some sort of slow build-up of power.

But when she stopped, he still saw nothing. And then his eyes went wide when she dropped her staff, falling to her knees. Did something go wrong? Was she hurt? Snow then made his presence known, quickly moving over to where Yuna fell, kneeling down low and putting a concerned hand gently on her back. "Hey! You okay?"

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

"Snow," Yuna greeted him, her voice gentle and sad. That attempt had reached a little further than the last one, she thought. It was foolish to expand her call in every direction at once, but a few smaller attempts might just do it.

"I'm all right. I think...I've finally figured this out."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"'Figured this out'?" he repeated as a question, unmoving. She said she was okay, but she still looked awfully exhausted.

[aaaiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee]

When Miranda walked onto the deck and saw Yuna dancing, she waited, hovering in the background to watch silently. The dance felt...sad, but moving.

It made her miss her home, and everyone she knew, so so much. She found herself struggling to hold back sobs, and she hoped that she hadn't made a noise and disturbed the girl.

"That was lovely," she whispered when it was finished, sniffing softly.

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

Sadness during the Sending was nothing new. Yuna was blanketed by it every time she began this again, waving in the wind to all the spirits lost to death. Her new acquaintance's pain, though, was personal.

She strode over to Miranda and extended a hand toward her, eyes warm. "I'm glad. I hope it's a little better for everyone...and that the lingering sorrow is released."

[aaaiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee]

Miranda smiled sadly. "I hope so too. I just...I still can't believe that everything's gone."