#ffx ending

[droshawoluv]

Death is in the Air.

>>FINAL FANTASY: PARTY MEMBER DEATH SCENES COMPILATION<<

Video of each scene ↑ & more including FF2 and FF4 (well, FF13 had copyright issues so maybe not that)

[lureofthesea]

Source: ethernalium

For @cactuarqueen <3

[mishyoona]

Yuna dropping 'sir' before addressing Auron was a significant statement. Here stood a man who had guarded her father with his life, being one of three directly responsible for bringing Spira its latest Calm. His actions have earned boundless admiration and respect from her. Yet, she felt the need to forge a connection that transcended the elder-youth disparity. Her intent on not letting family die was clear, customs be damned.

[incaseofart]

The prompts here were nightmare and snuggle. Auron and Wendy both suffer from an excess of nightmares. They've been through so much. But at least now, after everything, they are there for each other.

It's been ages since I drew Auron and I finally can do a decent job with his hair! Amazing. I miss this pairing.

[ageofzero]

Yuna is the antagonist of a potential Final Fantasy X-3, thank you for coming to my TED Talk

edit: okay I'll put it under a read more since it'll be a long post (but not as long as my entire conversation was), but what's promised is due.

Now that I have to make the post for real I had to do some wiki reading on what the actual Things going on in the novella were, and… well, a lot of my theorycrafting was based on incomplete and kinda inaccurate information. BUT I can’t read Japanese, the book was never released here, and I am going to go with rule of cool for a little bit of this even as I keep the stuff that sounds kinda dumb on the surface. I’ll be the first to say that Tidus exploding from a bomb he thinks is a blitzball is dumb (true), and Chuami thinking she’s Auron’s daughter is a dumb plot beat (petty), but I’m weaving this bridge and I’m not going to rewrite those. I am going to change some contexts and make them exist in a narrative that I hope is compelling. That’s my disclaimer, now I’m gonna get into it.

SO.

The scenario from the novella and audio drama is thus: Tidus died again in an accident, and Yuna brings him back. But he’s not back in the same way that the Fayth gave this dream a real living body at the end of X-2. The official term for it is “beckoned”, but I probably won’t use that to describe him based on my previous understanding. No matter if he’s beckoned or not, or whatever terminology you want to use, the thing is that Yuna summoned him back. She’s holding him to life, and he can never know. It’s been a year since the moment Tidus died, and Yuna has seemingly regressed into patterns that put her into what was once Yevon’s circle. Tidus is looking injured/weakened (“Chuami: It wasn’t just [Tidus’s] words that felt hollow. When I shook his hand, his grip felt weak and lifeless... I think he’s injured. Or maybe he’s sick or something.”), and people are looking to Yuna for help or information regarding the strange not-quite Unsent (the beckoned) that are appearing in places in Spira. Help she is not capable of giving. Wakka and Lulu are protecting her as she prays in Besaid Temple. The world is seemingly acting out, with a second shoopuf appearing in the Moonflow and its energies overflowing and drawing more illusions into reality. (“Yuna: The Moonflow energy is responding to the will of the living. It’s as if… we’re in the Farplane.”) And it’s more vivid than what the Farplane is capable of, even breaking the rules of “beckoning”. This is something new, something worse. Something worse enough to bring back Sin (which I thought was just me extrapolating a potential, but they actually mention it in the audio drama that it happens). Yuna promises the people that she will defeat Sin, but Wakka tries to keep her from being made to promise such a thing at first, which is an interesting choice (“Wakka: Yuna, let’s go back to Besaid. They’ll push this all on you… Sin is for summoners, in their minds.”).

Where does the world go in this present circumstances? Why IS Yuna seemingly content to do what chafed her in the Eternal Calm short movie and stay praying in Besaid and helping the elders who are lost now that Yevon as they knew it is in shambles? Why are Lulu and Wakka enabling and protecting her in that? Why is Tidus looking injured and weak and why is Yuna keeping him at arm’s length? Why does she tell him that she’s fallen in love with someone else?

I know the typical story beat interpretation is “Yuna told him that and pushed him away so he wouldn’t be in danger for what she needs to do, bc defeating Sin caused his death last time”. But hear me out. Yuna knows Tidus isn’t alive. She knows that revealing that information to him will cause him to disappear again. She’s actively summoning him back to life and he has no idea (but he must suspect something is wrong, even before Yuna formally pulls away from him, he’s weakening and he probably doesn’t feel right in his own skin). I posit that her maintaining Tidus’s life is what she’s really doing praying in the Besaid Temple. She doesn’t want to get involved with the Moonflow situation, the shoopuf or the overflowing energy of the Moonflow itself. She doesn’t even really act when seeing all the ghosts in the crowd, and actively stops Kurgum from acting (plausible deniability: she and everyone else decide that sending them in that moment would be the wrong call and riots would break out, but that density of ghosts means that’s a significant amount of pyreflies that could become fiends at any moment).

I posit that Yuna’s powers are working, that people close to her think her powers aren’t working (Lulu and Wakka), and she’s hiding it from everyone else. That her powers aren’t working because she’s currently using them to maintain Tidus’s existence. And this maintaining is breaking the Farplane in half, because she’s powerful but has no idea what she’s doing. (Why would she really know what she’s doing or the consequences? Who has any information of what she’s doing and what will happen if she does it?) I posit that Yuna’s love for Tidus is so strong that it corrupts her sense of right and wrong. X-2 is Yuna largely going on a personal quest, and incidentally helping people but separating herself from the title of High Summoner and doing something she wants to do. Rikku encourages her to do something for herself for a change right before she agrees and runs off to become a sphere hunter. She still saves the world, this time from an ancient danger Old Yevon buried and an Unsent is threatening to use (for love, notably), but she did it in the course of looking for Tidus. Who the Fayth return to life, who she hugs and is so so relieved to have in her arms again.

She’s not going to let him go, she couldn’t let him die again so much that she called him back to life.

(side note: I never truly knew how this happened so I had to consult the wiki page on the novella, and I suspect what original information I was working with was misrepresented and misinterpreted. I openly admit that the wiki page doesn’t really help me fully understand what happened, aside from explaining how Tidus ended up in proximity to a bomb. My understanding from someone’s explanation was that an Unsent summoner on the island Yuna and Tidus got washed up on after a storm told her she could call back the dead if she wanted, as a summoner. They’re all made of pyreflies, Aeons and Fiends and People and Unsent alike, and summoners are in the business of manipulating pyreflies. Either calling them from the Fayth to form an Aeon, or Sending them to the Farplane so they do not become Fiends. A summoner with enough power could summon someone back from the dead, could they not? And this Unsent summoner knew how it worked, and told Yuna how to do it. But I don’t know how real that scene could be, or how accurate it is to what’s written in the book. It’s my rule of cool moment, though, and I worked with that as my understanding when I made this theory. We have to make our peace with that, if you’ll allow me this extrapolation of Spira’s rules and a summoner’s powers.)

(The meme is Tidus kicking a blitzball and it turned out it was a bomb and his head gets blown off, but wiki says they ended up on a vision of a Besaid from 1000 years ago, and the bomb was something neither Tidus or Yuna had seen before and to them it looked like a blitzball. So, Tidus approached what he thought was a blitzball, wondering who’s ball it was, and it exploded as he reached it. I still think that’s really dumb but I’m not editing it out bc Tidus’s death creates very interesting consequences.)

So, if Yuna is summoning Tidus back to life, and she desperately doesn’t want him to find this out so she avoids him and pushes him away through any means necessary, but he’s still weakening and fading enough to be noticeable by people… perhaps also himself… Yuna returning to Yevon in some capacity could just as likely be her looking for a means to keep feeding power to this summoning she’s doing so she doesn’t lose him. And what kind of consequences does it have to do this? He’s being summoned, but he’s not actually an Aeon. He’s not an Unsent, he’s not just being beckoned. He wasn’t even real, he was a dream in a summon held together by the raw power of Yu Yevon turning into Sin. The Moonflow overflowing and seeing a long-dead shoopuf is the least of the consequences. The Farplane is delicate, it requires careful maintenance, and here Yuna is shoving her foot in the door and holding it open for a solid year! And no one knows she’s doing this! Spira’s past is full of history, some of that long-buried secrets that no one was supposed to find again. Sin wasn’t supposed to be able to come back, but the ghosts aren’t staying ghosts anymore (“Lulu: I mean Sin came back, right? What’s to stop anything else from coming back?”).

Even people who only know her by reputation seem to think she’s acting strangely (“Kurgum: I thought Lady Yuna was… a righteous person.”), because something is wrong and no one can put their finger on what. Who would have the pieces to put any of this together, and who would even suspect Yuna in the first place? She’s actively not getting involved in politics, she’s locked herself in Besaid, she seems reluctant to answer someone she worked with and should be amicable with now (Baralai).

I think the story should follow down this path, I think it should find Yuna at the end of it, once savior and now destroyer. She’s willing to let the world rip apart in order to keep Tidus, and I think that’s a compelling premise for X-3. The past surging forward like ghosts, vengeful and lost and wanted and terrifying. Who sides with Yuna (Wakka, Lulu) and covers up the problem? Who bands together to face down the High Summoner (Tidus, Rikku)? Who doesn’t know where to place their allegiance, or who changes sides when they realize the extent of what Yuna’s hiding? What does she do when she’s faced with her friends, and the person she loves so much, telling her to stop?

There’s a line in Eternal Calm where Yaibal (named in X-2 but not in the movie itself), after asking about whether or not she’d be joining one of the factions, if she’d be making a faction of her own. And I think in this potential X-3, she’s making her own faction through the actions of becoming antagonist. She’s made Wakka cover for her, she acts in a way that make Lulu and Wakka both protect her regardless of whether or not they know what she’s doing. I think it would be so fascinating to make this a conscious decision on her part. Things have broken so utterly, and she’s desperate to hold them together, and becomes the antagonist in the process.

Squeenix would never do it, they’d never be so bold as to make Yuna the antagonist and follow through on this trajectory of her lying to people to hide that she’s the one breaking the world in half (up to returning the ghost of Sin itself to terrorize Spira). Sin isn’t the final boss in this one, it’d have to be Yuna, we have to stop her and fix what went wrong. It’s not ever gonna happen, but I still think Yuna should be the antagonist of X-3.

[lureofthesea]

Source: summonersdream

OTP meme: 1/? (A quote)

Stay with me… until the end. Please.

Not until the end. Always.

[starrysnowdrop]

Whispers falling silently drift on the wind,

But I hear you—

Our journey, now a memory fading from sight,

But I see you—

[moldyycheese]

I absolutely had to share this because it is so earth shattering to me

THE DIFFERENCE IN HIS VOICE.

[goldenworldsabound]

Oh my god the ffx si would be REALLY cathartic right about now

I made them lose their sense of feeling... but what if they still had phantom pain, because the brain is the true generator of pain and that's essentially what's happening to me? My god...bro...

ffx music showed up in my soothing playlist you see

[phuuca]

Welcome to Phuuca!

With the sudden surge of new people following me, I've decided to make a type of Introduction/masterpost to let everyone know who I am! This post will continue to grow as things change and update.

So Hello everyone. I'm Phuuca [ he/they ]! I'm a Native-Mexican artist who's currently pursuing a degree in Studio/New Media Art. I am an adult (DoB: Jan. 20th) and have many interests and ideas I am passionate about. I use Firealpaca to draw and animate and I use Capcut to edit.

To get the record straight: This is MY blog where I express myself and my opinions, including political ones. I am very vocal about where I stand and where my morals lie. If you are a proshipper, invalidate people's identities, victim blame, and/or are bigoted in any way, shape, or form, you do not have a place here and you should really block me.

(Masterpost divided via importance and ease of access)

🍉🇵🇸 links:

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[lunarharp]

first scribbles to warm back up with them

[himebushou]

One of Buddy Daddies' central themes is the concept of change. The series explores both whether it's possible for people to change and whether they should be allowed to change.

In Episode 7, Kazuki openly admits to Karin that he fears changing because that, to him, is the same as forgiving himself for what happened in the past.

However, Karin encourages Kazuki with the words, "I bet you can make [Miri] happy too!" The rain promptly stops and the sun comes out, symbolising that Kazuki can now walk towards a brighter future.

Then, in Episode 8, Rei tentatively asks Kazuki, "You think we can change?" Once again, change is presented positively: we see Rei and Kazuki driving through darkness, but their path is paved with light the entire way.

This conversation takes place a few months after Kazuki meets Karin; therefore, Kazuki's already had time to commit himself to changing. For Rei, however, the conversation in Episode 8 serves as a vehicle for allowing the audience to know, explicitly, that he wants to change.

So: Kazuki didn't want to change but was convinced that he is allowed to. Rei didn't know if he could change but was prompted to try.

However, if we go back to the start of the series, the person who is most invested in the pair changing is Kugi Kyuutarou.

In Episode 1, as Kazuki leaves Mistletoe Café, Kyuu-chan pointedly asks:

From Kyuu-chan's perspective (and we see Karin reiterate the same idea), Kazuki has mourned for a long time — long enough that he can now be merciful with himself and think about his own happiness. The fact that Yuzuko died five years ago is significant: had she died 'too recently' (e.g. a year ago), there is a risk that the audience would have accused Kazuki of moving on too quickly and therefore failed to sympathise with his pain. However, with Yuzuko's passing taking place half a decade ago, both Kyuu-chan and Karin could be positioned to say to Kazuki, "You've been unhappy for a long time: I give you permission to move on." Of course, the five years also allows for the exploration of other ideas, such as the parallel of Kazuki's unborn child being the same age as Miri — but this is a seperate matter and I'll try to avoid going on a further tangent just now.

The scene in Episode 1 is the first indication we receive that Kyuu-chan doesn't simply care for Kazuki and Rei as colleagues. In fact, he wants to see them living better, more fulfilling lives.

Then, in Episode 5, Kyuu-chan looks after Miri and comes to the conclusion that her influence is a positive one. He does have some reservations, but he shares these with Kazuki and Rei, stating that he's unsure of whether Miri's presence will be good or bad for the pair.

Ultimately, however, Kyuu-chan gives his blessings for the trio to continue living chaotically — and let's not forget that he's indulgent enough to babysit Miri while Rei and Kazuki undertake a reconnaissance mission.

Next, in Episode 7, Kazuki 'runs away'. He whines to Kyuu-chan about his living conditions and Kyuu-chan notes, "You've really changed," with a small smile on his face.

Kyuutarou is pleased. He's wanted to see his friends happy for years — he introduced Kazuki and Rei to each other in the hopes that they would be good for one another in some capacity (and, as knowledgeable as Kyuu-chan is, I doubt he could have predicted that Kazuki would take over Rei's life in such a dramatic way). As he listens to Kazuki whinge about domestic life, Kyuu-chan comments, "Sounds like you're having a lot of fun." Kazuki protests, but it's clear thst he enjoys what his life has become.

Nevertheless, at the end of Episode 10, Miri — who has been presented as Kazuki and Rei's light — leaves with Misaki. Kazuki and Rei believe that they are doomed to return to their old, empty lives and Kazuki says, "Guess we weren't able to change." Rei agrees, offering a resigned, "Yeah." Here, the pair are too absorbed in their grief to realise that they have already changed.

When Kazuki and Rei believed that change was possible, they were both basked in light. Here, however, the shining Ferris wheel (which now represents what they believe will be their last ever happy memory with Miri) is behind them. Even the bright stars are behind them. Rei and Kazuki are locked in darkness and the idea of being able to change is consigned to their past — a foolish, naïve past where they believed that they, two men with bloodied hands, could ever be truly happy, like normal people. Once again, light and shadow are used to juxtapose the past and the future.

But this post is about Kyuutarou, so we must ask the question: how does Kyuutarou feel about all of this?

My guess is that he's devastated.

In Episode 10, Kyuutarou uses some forthright language to convince Rei and Kazuki that their life with Miri is over. He reminds them, "We're the ones who killed her father." From his standpoint, Kyuutarou needs to speak these harsh truths and intervene (by calling Misaki) in order to save lives. It's easy to perceive Kyuutarou in a negative light — however, we can understand that his hand was forced. In Episodes 5 and 10, Kyuutarou warns Rei and Kazuki that the Organisation does not show leniency; it is probable that Kyuutarou fears for his own life, also.

So when Kyuutarou shows the pair a picture and states, "All of this was only ever a dream," he isn't simply addressing Kazuki and Rei. He's also talking to himself. For Kugi Kyuutarou, too, a precious dream — one where his friends can change, one where they can be happy — is dead.

And having to be the one to sound the death knell? Having to bear the burden of driving nails into a coffin?

Kugi Kyuutarou is in mourning.

[solarellipse]

Anyways I finished FFX and-

[oveliagirlhaditright]

All-In

Summary: What if the option to get "Star Player" on your blitzball team in Final Fantasy X-2 was actually one of the endings you could get in the game? This fanfic explores that idea.

"What's all this commotion about someone who joined my blitzball team without my knowledge?" Yuna huffed, with her hands on her hips. She was looking at both Rikku and Paine as she said this, but deep down she thought that if either girl had made this decision without her (if they hadn't made it together), it would be Rikku since she was more mischievous.

But surprisingly, it was Paine who spoke up. " We both decided this, Yuna. And I really think you should give 'Star Player' a chance. We really have a chance to make it to the championship next season with him by our side."

"St-Star Player?" Yuna stammered, before falling onto the bench in the stadium locker room she'd been leaning against. It couldn't be, could it?

The fayth, just over a few weeks ago, had told Yuna they'd do everything they could to bring Tidus back after she'd stopped Shuyin and Vegnagun, but that they couldn't promise anything.

However, even after hearing that they were uncertain in their abilities to resurrect the dream of the fayth, Yuna had flown back to Besaid in the Celsius feeling hopeful that Tidus would somehow be waiting at home for her when she returned. Their journey had started their, after all, and they had had some nice memories there… so had it been wrong to dream? And maybe even beg the fates that Tidus could see it as some sort of home himself?

But alas, when Yuna had arrived back on the island, there had only been Lulu, Wakka, and baby Vidina to greet her—who she’d been more than happy to see—and as more and more days passed, she’d tried to put her talk with the fayth of Bahamut behind her… but this very well could have been something! Because as confident as Spira was becoming without the chains of Yevon holding them down, she still could really only imagine one person calling themselves “Star Player.”

“Is he in the sphere pool now?!” Yuna demanded of her best friends, grinning so widely she was sure she looked like Leblanc whenever she got attention from her Noojie-Woojie. A comparison Yuna hated thinking about, but one she would still gladly deal with if what she was thinking was true.

“Maybe, Yunie?” Riku ventured, sharing a look with Paine. “I’m not actually sure. Buddy was the first person to see him. And we signed him after we heard all of his impressive stats from him, but-”

Without wasting a second more, Yuna rushed towards the entrance to the sphere pool to see if this mysterious “Star Player” or any of her teammates were training in there. But she was fresh out of luck. And Yuna hung her head for the opportunity lost.

But this time, she didn’t lose hope.

Because if a “Star Player” had really joined their team, she’d have ample time to see him, right?

…

That theory of Yuna’s was proven false when days had gone by, and Yuna had yet to meet this “Star Player—or learn his name—despite trying to catch him at the sphere pool or talk to someone who knew him.

Seeming to sense her discomfort, while Yuna sat by the pool dejected at the end of the day, Rikku explained, "he has a pretty erratic training schedule, Yunie."

“One where he doesn’t train with us, but by himself?” Yuna questioned, knowing that she was close to whining, but not being able to help herself. She wouldn’t have been like this if the fayth hadn’t said that they might be able to bring Tidus back… but they had. And now she was living in the world of questions, it seemed.

“I think he might be shy?” Riku tried. “I mean, you know what it’s like meeting a large group of people for the first time. Give it some time, Yuna. I’m sure you’ll run into him eventually.”

Yuna’s response to that was to blow her bangs out of her face, exasperated. “Your advice is… disaster-iffic, Rikku. But I suppose we have nothing but time, now that Sin and Vegnagun are gone. So alright, I’ll bite.”

Even if she wasn’t happy about it, she would.

…

Yuna told herself to stop thinking about who may or may not have been Tidus somewhere around Luca (who might have been trying to surprise her? With Rikku and Paine’s help?), and to instead practice playing blitzball herself. Everything that had gone down with Vegnagun had kept her out of the water for too long, she thought. And if she wasn’t careful, she might be back to only her two minutes and forty-one seconds again.

Yuna started with practicing the butterfly and backstroke—as it was no use working on blitz moves if she wasn’t warmed up with the basics down, right?—and she was just starting to attempt her luck with a Venom Shot when she saw someone in the pool with her out of the corner of her eye.

And was it her… or did they almost seemed to be dressed to blend in with it, as they sported a black hoot that seemed rather familiar and a blue suit? But what was even more amazing than all of that, was that they seemed to be in the middle of doing the Jecht Shot!

Swimming towards the other side of the pool as fast as she was able to now, Yuna tried to reach this “stranger” before they disappeared entirely again, even as both of them moved to get out of the pool. And she saw a few strands of blond hair poking from their hood, as they disappeared beyond the corner and then slipped into the boy's locker room.

…Was it enough to hope? Yuna was definitely thinking so, even if it definitely seemed like fate was playing a peculiar game with her.

…

"Yunie… I'm so sorry to tell you this, but I think that blitzer might be done for the season," Rikku told the Gullwing a few days later, as she took both of her hands in her own.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Yuna protested, stepping away from Rikku as she did so. And yes, even ripping her hands out of her cousin’s grasp as probably would happen in some drama, Yuna supposed, but she didn't do remove her hands from Rikku’s own violently. And she only did so because she'd stumbled back in shock (And could one blame her? A voice said in the back of her mind. The fayth's words to her now almost felt like a slap in the face. And the whole situation was really and truly bizarre). "What kind of blitzball player, with that kind of talent, practices a few times—and just practices, not even plays—and then just disappears?!"

"You have to remember that the season is over, Yuna," Paine told her gently, patting the seat on the bench beside her for Yuna to come sit down. And as Yuna sat down beside her, she had a flashback to when Paine had before warned others not to get her hopes up about Tidus. Could this really be that situation again? "Maybe the blitzer was just having some fun, and…"

"I… guess," Yuna said, finally doubting herself. Maybe the person she had caught a glimpse of had looked more like Shuyin than Tidus. But then again, hadn’t Tidus been based off of Shuyin? That was how Yuna thought she understood things, anyway…

Oh, screw it! She didn't care what anyone said! Deep down, she knew that the blitzball player that she’d seen had been Tidus! She did! She knew it, just like she knew that she had loved shoopufs more than anything when she was a child!

“And speaking of it being an off-time for blitzball… Paine and I were talking—the whole team, really—and we think we could take a break from it until the season starts. Oh, don’t look at me like that, Yunie!

“Don’t you want to see Wakka, Lulu more and the baby more? They were so thrilled to see you! And you seemed so happy to see them! Paine’s thinking of getting the Crimson Squad back together, and Pops says there’s something he just has to show me back Home. The point is we have a lot to do for a ‘summer vacation’ of sorts before we really get blitzing again, y’know?”

“And you feel the same way, Paine?” Yuna dared ask her more strait-laced friend, fighting back tears. She didn’t know why she was: as Rikku had said, it seemed the whole team had decided this, but there was a part of her that was hoping that if some of this was Rikku just flying off the rails here, Paine would tell her so.

But instead, Paine looked at her with pained eyes—and maybe something else there—and said, “I do.”

And so, Yuna did what she’d once done for so many years and practiced smiling even though she was feeling sad. “I understand you two. And thank you. For everything. But you’re right… it really is supposed to be summer vacation now. Go live your lives and know that we’ll get the championship next season!”

After the girls hugged and did one last fist pump for the Gullwings, they left Yuna alone.

And Yuna?

Yuna found herself walking into Luca stadium one last time, with her hands laced together behind her back.

It was then that she saw something—or rather someone—who took her breath away: they were sitting in a stand a hare's breadth away from her, looking as pensive as she felt: with dyed blond hair hiding their black roots, a yellow jumpsuit with pants that were cut to different lengths, and evergreen gloves that she had once thought the Calm Lands' grass might have been colored similarly to before she saw said grass herself, and realized it was slightly lighter than his gloves.

‘But it can't be him’, Yuna told herself. The fayth weren't even sure they could bring him back, right? And if it was… wouldn't Rikku and Paine have told me? Or Tidus have come to me right away?

The moment he looked at her with the kindest cerulean eyes she had been dreaming about for two years, Yuna knew straight away who she was looking at. And she fainted dead away, as she heard a curse and arms circled around her.

…

When Yuna came to, she didn’t remember what would happen. But she knew right away where she was: a mostly abandoned locker room in Luca, that had been created when they thought that the water in the sphere tank was going to be real and not a simulation. Thus, there was all kinds of medical equipment in here. Why, oh, why would she be in this room? She hadn’t been when she’d fallen unconscious. And Yuna presumed she must have fallen unconscious to be in here now, so how-

Suddenly, he was in her sights, and it all came back to her. And the first words that came out of her mouth upon seeing him were not the words she thought she’d say if she ever saw him again at all.

"Tidus, you jerk!" Yuna exclaimed, tears of joy and anger streaming down her face as she spoke. "How could you not tell me you were back?! Do you have any idea what this was like for me? What I-

And here, Tidus scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, a trait that Yuna had so missed seeing, before he tried to explain himself. “I’m so sorry, Yuna. And I really owe you an explanation for everything, huh?”

Yuna’s answer to that was a simple raise of her eyebrow as Tidus came to sit down beside her on the cot, and took off a cuff that had been on her arm. Huh. She hadn’t even realized it was there. (1)

"I wanted my being back to be a nice surprise for you, y’know! And my first thought was through blitzball! Since we talked about my past in Zanarkand a lot, and water has meaning for us.”

Hearing those words, Yuna blushed, definitely catching the meaning of that. “I also kept an eye on you in the Farplane and knew you’d become such a great blitzball player yourself! So, I planned with Rikku and Paine to surprise you on the field.

“But I guess from the beginning I ended up thinking it was a pretty dumb idea, because two of the times I meant to do it, I ended up chickening out… Then, the time you did end up seeing me, was pure dumb luck—where I’d been out there swimming for myself—and then you came out. And I didn’t have a moment planned, so I ran. Then today, I was sitting in the stadium in Luca wondering what to do, when you came out again and saw me—uhh, fainted—and here we are.”

Well, that certainly explained everything, Yuna thought, almost amused now. And it was good to know that Rikku and Paine (and Buddy, presumably) had been following his lead, wherever it led. So they weren’t done with YRP, like she had begun to fear, Yuna told herself. But surely they had been waiting for wherever his “surprise” would lead next when he figured it out.

And speaking of his surprise… really, Tidus was so sweet. The thought he'd put into wanting their reunion into meaningful really had been thoughtful… and Yuna could almost feel herself falling in love with him again for it as she gazed at him now. Like when she'd looked at Tidus when they'd talked about the weather years ago, and then laughed at that cliché, and she knew despite everything… something was starting there.

But at the same time… "Tidus… while I appreciate what you were trying to do, please don't ever make me wait to see you ever again! Especially when I- I lost you like I did. Being without you, it- it hurt so much. And given the choice of miraculously being reunited with you as soon as possible, or holding off on seeing you again for you to put on some show… well, wouldn't you choose the former if you were in my shoes?"

At that, he winced. And though Yuna hated to see it, she knew that it was necessary and hopefully imparting on him just what she’d been through these last few days through his unintentional game. Because, after all, while he’d been in the Farplane these last two years, she’d been here in Spira living her life, and often times it had been painful.

“Yuna, again, I’m so sorr-”

But the sphere hunter cut him off with a kiss on the cheek before he could berate himself too badly.

"I forgive you, Tidus. I understand how it all got out of hand. But you would think that when we finally earned our happy ending, things would go right!" the high Summoner exclaimed as she threw her hands up into the air.

Tidus poked Yuna in the stomach once then, and she couldn't help but laugh. "I don't really know if you want things to be perfect, Yuna. Things might be too boring that way." And the blitzball player feigned a yawn at the end of that sentence that would have had the nineteen-year-old seeing red, if she hadn't known it was fake.

"You take that back!" Yuna poked Tidus now, but with much more vigor. "There's a difference between 'boring,' and me thinking the fayth failed in bringing you back… As well as your 'perfect reunion' for us going so left field, that we're in an abandoned locker room of Luca stadium's, y'know!"

And at that, Tidus chortled: one that was akin to the one she had heard after they had tried to fake laugh two years ago. Yuna tried to be angry at this, and to turn her face away from the love of her life in a huff, but in the end, she could not. It was something she had ended up longing for more than she ever had for an eternal calm.

"How about this, Yuna?" Tidus sobered up, wearing the most beautiful smile she had ever seen a human being wear. "How about we just promise to have a good life together?"

And while Yuna would have loved to banter with him more, a part of her definitely thought he deserved that, those words—the idea of that kind of future—was all she’d ever dreamed of. So, what could she possibly say, but? “Oh, Tidus, that’s all I’ve ever wanted. Of course!” And this time she drew him in for a kiss.

And while Yuna hadn’t been the one trying to plan a surprise here, after she was done kissing Tidus silly and she saw his stunned reaction, she definitely thought it had been a surprise worth waiting for.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve seen enough of Luca’s locker rooms for a while,” Yuna said, offering Tidus her hand and helping him up. “Want to go home and see Wakka and Lulu?”

“I’d say my home is wherever you are, Yuna. And if that’s where you are, I’m all in.”

“All in…” Yuna echoed, so happy she could barely even say the words for how much she was smiling.

Tidus kissed her on the cheek now, and hand-in-hand, the two of them left Luca stadium. Together.

Author’s Note: (1) I had the idea that after Yuna passed out, Tidus was trying to check Yuna’s vitals with machina he didn’t even really know how to use. LOL. But the idea sort of disappeared in the story. Oh well.

Speaking of, for this fic, I decided to do something that I’ve seen at least one other FFX author do (maybe a few others), where Zanarkand actually used real water to play blitzball in, but the water is a simulation in Spira (and that’s one of the few ways where Spira was actually more advanced than Zanarkand)—if anyone was confused by Yuna’s one line about the water in the Luca field being a simulation.

I’ve had this story idea ever since I beat Final Fantasy X-2… which was, like, seventeen-eighteen years ago. O_o And even though I always did, I never really set out to try and write it until now. But I’m so glad that I finally have, because it was a fun idea that turned out rather well, I’d say.

This is for my bestie friend’s birthday. And I hope she’s having a great one!:D

Thanks for reading!

@bluerosesburnblue

[phantomarine]

quite possibly my favorite video on YouTube

[flammedoudoune]

Imagine being a guardian in the FFX universe. Devoting your life to protecting your Summoner on their pilgrimage, knowing that if you do your job well and they don't die along the way, they're still gonna end up sacrificing themselves and die anyway at the end. Like wow, okay, so none of you are well actually.