Revival of the Forbidden Arte (Invite Only)

[mugenginga]

Kid had a deathgrip on Luke's arm as soon as he caught her. She wasn't cutting off circulation, but it was close. She seemed pretty locked up, and her pupils were huge. Crono had heard her scream and winced, looking over to her after a quick glance to make sure the pit had been made. He looked guilty, and rubbed the back of his head again. It seemed a nervous tic of sorts. He opened his mouth to apologize when Luke asked his question.

The first thing that hopped into his mind was a question. What the hell was a fonist? In fact, earlier in his adventures he might have asked that. After a few lectures from Lucca on maintaining some kind of space-time continuum, he'd learned to be more careful. Fonist was probably whatever this time period's word for magic was. So the slight pause was instead answered with a nod.

"Yeah, Lightning based... wait, are you saying you can use magic too?"

It had taken him talking to realize the problem. The only culture that had ever used magic was Zeal. They had lost the ability when Zeal had fallen. How Magus used magic was unknown, the man never talked much about himself. He had vanished before Zeal's fall, so there was probably something there. Still, the landscape pretty much proved this wasn't Zeal. Had man rediscovered magic in the future...?

"Lightning!" Kid said in a very unfriendly tone. It was a mix of fear, surprise, and unpleasantness.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Luke blinked as he heard Crono use an unfamiliar word. Magic? He was sure he'd heard that word before, but he'd never heard it used in relation to artes before. And Lightning-based... so Wind Artes? Agh, this person was confusing him.

"What the hell's magic?" Luke asked. "And nah, I trained in Strike Artes." Well, technically he was a Seventh Fonist because of his ability to cause a hyperresonance on his own. But that wasn't something you went around talking about.

He looked down at Kid as she squeezed harder on his arm. "Hey, not so tight, that hurts." She really seemed to be freaked out by the lightning. Well, all kids were the first time they saw it.

[mugenginga]

Crono had a pretty similar reaction as Luke asked what the hell magic was. Magic was... well.... magic. It couldn't be a case of time travel, whatever force allowed Crono to speak with all times seemed to be working here. And then Luke mentioned Strike Artes. What the heck? Did he mean Techs? Crono was trying to come up with a response to that when Luke looked down towards Kid.

Kid let up as soon as Luke said it hurt. She seemed to understand him enough. She almost collapsed again without the iron grip on his arm, but she flapped her far arm enough to regain balance. She was wobbly, but right now Luke was only something there if she lost her balance. Like her ability to speak, her ability to walk seemed to be developing far faster than it should.

Crono finally gave up trying to explain it. Lucca could have come up with something, he was sure, but he wasn't about to sacrifice his safety just to maintain the space-time continuum. Really, if their hopping hadn't shattered it before, what was the worst that could happen now? He wasn't going to go all out and say he was from another time, but...

"I think where I come from, we call fonists those that can use magic. And Strike Artes sounds something like what we call Techs. They're things you do with weapons right? You can combine them with that fon thing if you have enough skill?"

Kid looked confused again, but the panic seemed to have faded, "Magic? Fons?"

Another chill breeze blew past. The sun had finished setting. The only consolation was they were in the country and the stars granted good light. Still, they really needed to get that fire started. Crono had started to rub his arms without realizing it.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Luke blinked at that explanation. So magic-users were fonists? And Techs? Another odd term, though at least it seemed to be a word he'd heard of before. But the comparison fit. Luke wasn't a fonist, but he could combine fonons with his Strike Artes to make elemental based artes, like Slag Assault.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Luke said. He rubbed his arms as the chill breeze blew past. The sun was already past the horizon. They'd probably freeze if they didn't get that fire up soon.

"Hey, let's go gather some wood for that fire. It's really cold out," Luke said. Again, he felt like his stomach was freezing. Probably was. If it was possible to get frostbite of the stomach, Luke had a feeling he was going to be finding out soon.

[mugenginga]

Kid frowned and pushed away from Luke. She proceeded to stumble forward. She would have had the fun experience of a first faceplant had Crono not seen her moving and rush forward. She fell into his arms, and Crono could only be glad she was clothed. As cold as Luke was, Kid had most of her arms, her legs from just above the knees down, and feet exposed. It was some kind of luck she hadn't landed in a place that was snowing.

"Luke, could you get the wood? That bush over there should have enough few pieces now," Crono adjusted as Kid straightened up. The woman was just a bit taller than him, but Schala had been a bit on the tall side. Luke was right, though, she really didn't know how to walk, "My hands are kind of full..."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"Yeah, okay," Luke said. He walked over to the bush and picked up a few logs. Crono had really chopped it up well. The bush was most likely going to stay dead. Luke looked down at the bush for another moment before taking the logs over to the fire pit and dropping them into it.

"Alright, Crono, go ahead and work your 'magic'," Luke said. He inwardly groaned at himself. What was that? That sounded like something Jade would come up with. He was still confused about this magic stuff. So it was fonic artes...? Seemed kind of different, though.

[mugenginga]

Crono looked up and gave a nervous grin at the unspoken quotes Luke put around magic. Fonic Artes. He'd have to remember that term, because it seemed the term for magic in this era. Techs had gotten renamed too. Crono was pretty sure he was in a time ahead of his own. The magic, however it was called, could only indicate that.

"Kid, could you go over to Luke?" Crono asked.

Kid looked up. She'd been eyeing the firepit with distrust. That had been where the lightning had hit before and the two people with her were doing something that seemed suspicious. She frowned at Crono and gave him an annoyed look. He sighed.

"Right, you can't walk..."

Crono put his hand on Kid's and walked towards Luke. She let out a slight eep noise but walked with him. Luke would realize Crono was loosening his grip on her, and after a few steps he let go. Kid continued walking over to Luke, and the action was yet another kink in Luke's theory. It made it seem like she couldn't walk because she didn't have the confidence in it. She was walking just fine... until she looked over, realized Crono wasn't there, and sprawled forward.

"Schala!" Crono said, unaware of his mistake.

Kid lay there for a few moments before pushing herself in a sitting position... and starting to bawl.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Luke had seemed confident for a moment that Kid was actually walking on her own. Maybe she was just a quick learner. It wasn't like Florian hadn't been. Luke was fairly sure Florian had been a fairly recent replica, but Florian had been speaking like he'd been talking all his life by the time Anise had been done with him on that ride back to Daath from the Absorption Gate.

And then she'd fallen after she realized Crono was no longer leading her on. Luke had been running forward when Crono had slipped up and called her Schala, and then Kid had started bawling. And Luke was back to not knowing what to do. He slowly approached her and held a hand out.

"Er... you're gonna be alright. You didn't hit yourself too hard... did you?" he asked hesitantly. Was this what he'd been like when he had been a new replica?

[mugenginga]

"Aw jeez..." Crono said.

He had to wonder why he'd been stuck with this. Marle or Lucca would have been far better. Ayla might have helped, although Ayla might have also been a bit brash. He walked over towards where Luke was offering his hand to Kid. She had already faded to sniffling and she was looking at Luke's hand. She wiped her nose with the sleeve of Crono's jacket before she got a determined look on her face.

She didn't take Luke's hand. Instead, she pushed down on the ground and wobbled to her feet. Crono paused a few feet back from her and watched. She looked all of a two year old taking their first steps and walked over to where Luke's jacket had been tossed earlier. She fell into a sitting position, grabbed the jacket, and went back to hugging it. Crono find himself sweatdropping.

"Ah.. I'll... go start the fire..."

It was really weird. She looked the exact same age Schala had. If it hadn't been for Luke, Crono would have been thinking of it as an odd case of amnesia. But Luke insisted she was a replica, a copy. That pendant had probably been given to her from Schala. And who knew where Schala was anymore than they had known before? Crono had walked over to the pit but he hesitated. Actually, it might be possible to narrow down Schala's location to an era if nothing else.

"Luke... when did that, erm... technology for making replicas get invented...?"

Hopefully that wouldn't mark him as too stupid. He'd seemed to startle Luke before not knowing what replicas were. It was apparently common knowledge in this era. He could only hope that the year the technology had been discovered wasn't common knowledge as well. Actually, if things went well he could find out what year this was. If he knew how far ahead from 1000 A.D. he was, it might help. The teenager was still operating on the assumption he was in a different time period. In his defense, enough time could cause a lot of changes in the world...

"Miiine~" Kid said in a singsong voice, apparently unaware of what was going on with Luke and Crono now that she had "her" jacket back.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Luke sighed as Kid went straight toward his jacket. He was never gonna get it back at this rate. He'd given up on trying to get the jacket back after that tug-of-war incident, so he walked away from Kid and sat down on the ground nearby the pit. He looked up as Crono addressed him.

"Well, it's been around since before I was born, but it wasn't until a couple years ago that it became widespread," Luke said. He looked back toward the fire pit. He didn't know what was up with Crono. Maybe the guy really had been living under a rock or something these past few years if he was from Auldrant at all. The concept of this being another world, while still weird as crap, definitely seemed rather likely at this point.

But there had been replicas all over the place in Auldrant. Literally millions of replicas. Which was why Crono would have had to been literally living under a rock to not know about them. They had been everywhere.

[mugenginga]

Crono looked at Luke. He figured he was older than he was. He worried about venturing a guess how much. At his oldest he was probably in his early twenties. The teenager guessed probably more like nineteen or twenty. He glanced back at Kid before turning back to the pit. So twenty-five years ago seemed a good round guess. The fact that it was widespread combined with Luke's surprise he didn't know? At this rate he really was going to have to tell him.

"Keep an eye on her, would you? She probably isn't going to react well this time either," he turned towards her and hoped he heard him speaking, "Sch... ah, Kid, you might want to cover your ears!"

_{"Ti nala... LIGHTNING!"
("Oh heaven's reach... LIGHTNING!")}

Once again something like third fonons raised around him. He raised his hands with the first half and his body gave off the same glow from before. A lightning bolt struck down and hit the center of the pit with great precision. In an instant the dry word sparked. It was followed by a medium sized fire roaring to life in the pit. Crono glanced back towards Kid.

She had done as told when Crono suggested it. That alone implied that she was picking up on things rather fast. She had let out an eep as the lightning bolt hit, but the sound of the fire roaring to life had muffled it. She lowered her hands after glaring over at the two red-haired young men for a few moments. She then turned her focus to the fire. Crono gestured to her when he saw her do that.

She looked at his hand for a moment before giving a grin of the sort Schala had never worn. She wobbled as she pushed herself to her feet and headed towards the fire. She sat down in a guided fall fashion between where Luke was sitting and Crono was standing. She looked over at the spiky haired teenager as if she expected something. He adjusted the hilt so it wouldn't interfere and sat down. It was only now that the fire had started he'd realized just how cold it was.

Crono looked up past where Kid was now warming her hands. He pointed at Luke's sword, "That sword doesn't seem like something you could just walk into a shop and buy, mind telling me about it? It kinda reminds me of this broadsword called the Masamune that a friend of mine uses, although its design is rather different. Anyone ever tell you the bottom half looks like some kinda tuning fork?"

It wasn't as if the teenager could talk about odd swords. After all, his own katana was pretty out there itself, what with the way it seemed to be made out of some kind of metal rainbow. Not only that, but the etching into the hilt was a rather prominent feature in itself. Even the hilt seemed to fit the blade as if it had been customized for it. Luke had seen all those features of it, as well, due to Crono drawing it earlier.

(OOC: Random fact! Masamune is pronounced Mah-Sah-Mu-Neh, as it retains its Japanese name. I pronounced it Mah-zah-moon for years, though. XD)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Luke looked away as Crono summoned the lightning from the sky again, not because he didn't like it, but because of how bright it had been. He hadn't had much of a warning the last time, so he hadn't been able to prepare for it, but he'd at least expected it this time when he heard Crono start chanting. He looked back toward the now crackling fire.

He'd been looking at it for a moment before Crono asked him about the sword. He looked over at Crono.

"Yeah, it's kinda special. It's called the Key of Lorelei. The main part's the Sword of Lorelei, but it's got the Jewel of Lorelei imbedded in it," Luke said. His expression was pained as he continued. "I got the sword from... a friend."

He had gotten the Jewel from Lorelei itself, while Asch had gotten the Sword from Lorelei. While the Jewel had ended up becoming part of Luke's body due to the contamination effect, the Sword had landed at his feet after he'd helped his replica lower the Outer Lands. The Dark Wings had been confused as to where the sword had come from; it certainly hadn't been the same sword he'd come in with, but he'd assured him that it wasn't anything too special, they didn't need to worry.

Luke blinked as the memory that wasn't his suddenly hit his mind. What the hell...? He looked unfocused for a moment before looking back over at Crono.

"Anyways, what about your sword? I've seen some pretty weird swords, but yours is one of the weirder ones. It's like it's been carved some kind of rainbow rock," Luke said, in an attempt to get himself to not focus on that weird flash of memory. Asch had been long dead; he didn't need to be getting memories from him now.

[mugenginga]

Kid looked up as Luke began to talk. She seemed to be refocused on the situation. She still had Luke's jacket, but she'd relaxed enough that it was now laying in her lap. Her eyelids had already begun to sag a bit by the time Luke finished. Crono was more concerned with the expression on Luke's face as he mentioned "a friend". Ouch, he'd hit a sensitive subject. Might as well have asked Frog about the Masamune.

And then Luke had blanked out for a few moments, as if he was someplace else. Crono blinked and was about to say something. Reach over and shake the man if he had to, but he seemed to shake it off and look back at Crono. The teenager let out a goofy grin and nodded.

"Shell, actually. It was made using the Rainbow Shell that the Guardia royal line..... ah..."

Crono closed his mouth. His expression made it look like he'd swallowed a but. Well, crap. For all he knew the Guardian Kingdom had collapsed a long time ago. He was convinced he was in the future. Even if it hadn't, they'd probably made records about the whole mess with the King nearly getting his title stripped from him over the Rainbow Shell. And if that was far in the past... Crono rubbed the back of his head and waited for some kind of response.

Kid looked about ready to fall over asleep.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Luke blinked as Crono spoke again. He would have just dismissed it as whatever the heck Crono's world was like if it hadn't been for the term Crono had used. Guardia. That was damn similar to Gardios, Guy's original family name.

"Guardia? You mean Gardios?" Luke asked. "Guy never mentioned anything about his family being royalty... or that they were guarding some kind of Rainbow Shell."

Luke scratched his head. This was all very confusing to him. But if Crono really was referring to the Gardios family, then that meant that Crono really was from his world. But on the other hand, how would Crono even know about the Gardios family? Luke knew that Hod had been destroyed around the time he was born (created...), but if Crono was referring to a time before Hod's destruction... And Crono certainly didn't look all that old either...

Did that mean that Crono had travelled through time?!

[mugenginga]

Crono had expected a lot of things. Shock, disbelief, perhaps even violence. Or to be passed off as a loon, even. But something as simple as thinking he had mispronounced a word? Gardios? Crono blinked as Luke mentioned some guy not being royalty. There seemed to be a lot of miscommunication going on here. He let out a sigh and shook his head. If Lucca wanted his head later, fine. But the fact was these were the only people he'd met in this time. Might as well let the cat out of the bag.

"Nah, I mean Guardia. I'd tell you to sit down if you weren't already," Crono glanced at Kid. Well, if she really was newborn, she probably couldn't process what he was about to say. If she was Schala... well, maybe it would jog her memory, "Lucca's gonna flip when I find her... Hey, don't freak here, but I'm not... from now."

There. He'd emphasized now. He'd not only said "here", but he'd emphasized now. He'd laced his fingers behind his head and looked away for a moment before choosing to look back at Luke. All he had to do now was wait for a reaction. Hopefully he wouldn't freak out too much.

Thinking back, he was probably lucky no one who had learned about the time travelling his friends had done had freaked. Ayla had found it cool although they had had to show her what they meant. Robo had accepted it as a matter of course, he never could understand how that guy had thought. Frog had come the closest to freaking out, but he'd gone with the flow well enough. And Magus had already been used to it, and the guy had probably recognized them when he thought about it.

So yeah. He'd figure out what the heck he was supposed to do after Luke's reaction. Kid was still managing to stay awake, but it seemed only by sheer willpower.