Seeds of Spira (Broomhandle45 and Candira)

If the universe was trying to make a joke...it had some serious work to do on its humor. This was one hell of a dark joke. Eddie seemed happy with the pairing, and once the arrangements were made, there was nothing one could do short of attempting to murder your partner to get your assignment changed. Generally, murder was frowned upon, though, and that meant being jettisoned from the program. Damnit. She was stuck!

"Which classmates?" Lucy wondered aloud.
 
"Not important," Eddie said casually, sitting down on one of the benches with a light sigh. "So, you two...you've gotten your dresspheres, have you activated them yet?" The expressions said no, but at least they didn't look so miserable anymore. Ah yes, the reality sunk in just where they were at again, did it? Garen lifted up his garment grid a little to stare at the glimmering orb, a grin returning on his face.

"Oh man...I totally forgot!" That was the whole point of the training.

"Uh huh," Eddie sighed, stroking his mustache idly. "Well? Try them out! You need to get familiar with them!"
 
Lucy frowned, disappointed with her assigned partner. Well, it was best to just get on with it then. She was surprised to know that she could have activated her dress sphere and smiled when she finally activated her grid and sphere. She didn't need Eddie to tell her twice. A blinding light surrounded her and her body seemed to turn into pure energy. Crackling red light surrounded her and before she knew what was happening, she was a red mage.

She wore the traditional red hat with a white plume. Her militaristic jacket was red and black, leather straps across her chest. Her shoulder insignias had the school's crest and she wore short red shorts which laced up the side. The most unique portion of the costume she wore was the sheer black thigh-high stockings and white heels she wore with the knee pad insignias as well. She held a rapier instead of a staff, but she could feel magic coursing through her body. Holding up the sword, Lucy could see that the handle was a little unique as well. She smiled, pleased to see the small changes were part of her sphere's personalization.
 
"...Wow, Loose." Garen drawled, it was nearly the textbook look of a Red Mage. There was nothing particularly wrong with that, he supposed...but he was expecting something a little more personal, or...you know, something that's not dull. He had to admit, all that red did bring out her eyes. If you were into attractive women looking attractive, which he was...what teenager wasn't?

"...Very traditional," Eddie complimented easily, scratching his chin in thought. Hm, she was going to need some help with that...
 
Traditional? But her outfit was totally different! Most red mages wore boots and those odd two-toned stockings. She had white heels and black stockings! TOTALLY DIFFERENT. "What? I thought the shoes gave it a different look," she said, a little disappointed that her dress sphere appearance didn't impress them more. It was just more proof that no matter how hard she tried to be normal, she mostly fell short. She wanted to be different, but she wasn't entirely sure how to do that with the traditional images. It felt wrong to change them too much.
 
"Oh come on," Garen huffed. "You look like a priestess! Where's the flair! Where is the lumunc?"

"Well, then let's see yours, Garen." Eddie replied easily, setting back in his seat. Garen's eyes just lit up like that, and he ran his hand over the dressphere before his body glimmered in a flash of light. His color was quite harsh, but eventually in settled into something that was...interesting. For starters, he had a long coat that was in the traditionally orange color of Al-Bhed design and a bright yellow shirt underneath, bets settled on his hips were crisscrossed and contained holstered pistols-which, at a glance were a shade of crimson and black and smoothed out into a pair of beige pants and black boots.

"Oh yeah...now we're talking!" Garen grinned, straightening his jacket out. Garish was a word that came to Eddie's mind on regarding that horrible jacket, but it was...expressive and unique. He noted that the worn goggles on his head remained as well. Very interesting.

"See?" Garren said proudly, arms crossed and seemingly smug as a Ronso about his bright orange jacket. "This is how you do it!"
 
"Well, it definitely suits you," she said, crossing her arms, giving him another once over. She'd never seen anything quite so gaudy in her entire life. And worse--he thought it was cool. She sighed a little and then turned to face her instructor, wondering if he still thought they would have good chemistry after this little display. How could two people at the opposite ends of the spectrum make a good team?

"Well, sir, what should we do now?" she asked, wondering how he intended to train them today.
 
Before Eddie could even begin to discuss the matter, a student rushed out from the courtyard in an exhausted wheeze. It was Reese, one of the boys who graduated with them both. He was a good guy, kind of...absent minded, however. Garen was told some of the girls found his manner cute, but he had a slight feeling he was gonna be in trouble here. Not many students were so eager to rush to an Instructor of all people.

"Instructor!" Reese wheezed heavily, hands on his knees. "I...I lost my dressphere! I don't know where it is!"

"...You what?" Garen groaned, hand on his head. "Oh for Spira's sake, Reese..."
 
Lucy gasped as Reese relayed the bad news. A missing dress sphere was a lot of trouble--not just because it was such an important piece of equipment, but because the academy existed to train people how to use them. In the wrong hands, a dress sphere could unduly affect the user, essentially driving them mad! "Well, think about it, Reese. Where was the last place you had it for sure?"

Lucy stepped forward, hands on her hips. It was pretty clear that her former classmate was panicking. "I'm sure you've looked everywhere, but try to think. When was it last in your hand?"
 
"Um...when I was showing it to my family," Reese wheezed softly, Eddie said nothing for the moment. Simply watching his two students sort it out on their own, sadly...he could already guess the answer.

"Go on," Garen mumbled. "What then?"

"I...I don't know!" he protested. "I put it back in the box and I showed my family my room, then they left! That's it!" He promised fiercely, and as honest as that was. Eddie let out a light sigh at that, rising up smoothly. There was an unfortunate gap that he was missing, but it was no matter...they had to find it.

"Looks like we found your first job, kids." Eddie grinned.
 
Lucy frowned, knowing exactly where this was going. Someone in his family had obviously taken the sphere. She sighed and looked at her instructor as he decided that this mission should be entrusted to the two of them. Well, at least she'd get to try out her sphere. Eddie was grinning about his decision, but the red mage wasn't so sure that this would be a simple mission at all. But then, what better test of abilities than a true crisis?

"Alright, then. Tell us where your family lives, Reese. We'll take care of it."
 
"Alright," Reese mumbled. "They live in Luca...they own the item shop on third street, you can't miss it."

"Excellent," Eddie smiled easily. "If you two can't find it, then Reese is ejected from the school." The look on Reese's face went white as a sheet, and Garen immediately felt bad for the guy. I mean, granted it was kind of his fault, but he was putting that on them, too?

"What?" Garen muttered. "Come on, how is that fair!?"

"Those are the rules," Eddie replied dryly. "Which I"m sure you're fully aware of, Garen?"

Wait, he actually had to read the rules of the school? People read those?
 
Luca it was. Lucy nodded and gave Reese a pat on the shoulder as Eddie reminded them all that the young man's future was in their hands. Garren's outburst really shouldn't have surprised her, but she couldn't help but wonder how he hadn't known about all this. She turned to face her partner and knew instantly that he hadn't read the school rules even once. The blank look on his face mixed with a very vague sense of confusion was all too clear. Great. Just her luck that her partner was on the other side of the issue. Sighing, she rubbed her temples.

"Look, we need to get going if we want to prevent that. Luca's not far from here, but I think we should round up some chocobos. It's foolish to waste time." With that, she headed off, to the stables in a hurry, leaving Garen to either follow her or stay and argue with Eddie.
 
"Well, look at her," Garen replied dryly, following after with her with his hands on his pockets. Woo, look at that sway...that skirt did swing ever so delicately. "Suddenly she's got a fire up her pidd...speaking of," he grinned lazily. Well, in order to be someone comfortable with machine weapons...you did need a very clear set of eyes, was it so wrong to be attentive to his partner? That was a good thing, right?

"Nice to see you paying attention, Garen." Eddie sighed, following after them both. You know, sometimes he really wished he was better at coin flips. Tanika had to be laughing at him somewhere by now, he just knew it. He was feeling a headache coming on, this is what he got for following his gut.
 
Miles away, Tanika sneezed. She looked up at the sky, feeling like someone was talking about her somewhere. She smirked. Probably it was Eddie. That poor bastard was probably figuring out that he'd gotten the short end of the stick.

Back at the academy, however, Lucy was blissfully unaware of the lecherous actions of her partner. She was doing her level best to ignore him. Her long legs brought her to the stables in no time. When she explained the situation to the hand on duty, he left to go get the birds ready for transport. Honestly, Lucy loved chocobos. It was a real treat to get to ride them, but she really had been thinking that it was best to not let a lot of time pass between now and when they got to the Sphere. Anything could happen, after all.

It didn't stop her from having to physically restrain herself from bouncing in excitement with the birds came into view. So. Frickin. ADORABLE.
 
Garen stuffed his hands in his pockets, casting a casual glance to his partner as two chocobos trotted up, a third being already called by Eddie. He was a little amused by her excitement, it was kind of cute really. He didn't much see the appeal in a giant squawking, smelly bird...he'd much prefer one of the machines they used in the Bikanel Desert to get around. But it wasn't his choice was it?

"...Fan of Chocobos?" he asked dryly, as one of the birds picked through his hair with it's beak. Ugh...nasty things.
 
She giggled as the bird played with Garen's hair, obviously bothering him. "Well if I wasn't before, I certainly am now," she said. She smiled up at her mount and gave it a pet and something to eat. "They're such smart birds," she said with a smile. With that, she swung into the saddle, cooing softly to the Chocobo. Once The others were ready, she took off on her bird, making her way out of the academy and toward Luca. They had a job to do.

Of course, that didn't stop her from enjoying the hell out of the ride. She loved the feeling of control and freedom--not to mention the sheer exhilaration of the experience.
 
Oh, real cute...but he'd let it slide since they had work to do and Reese's studentship was on the line. Something that made him just a tiny bit uncomfortable, such was the job, right?

Garen knew how to ride a chocobo, he wasn't fond of it...but he had to learn anyway. He spurred his chocobo on afterward, fingers tight around the reigns. Luca was quite the bustling town, and many of the students were familiar with it even if they didn't live there. It was just about the only place they could go when they had a weekend off, and it was a popular spot for just about any student in the Concourse Academy.

"Careful, Loose," Garen drawled. "You almost look like you're having fun."
 
"Aw, cram it, sourpuss." She rolled her eyes and rode with ease. Even if Garen was along for the ride, it was no reason to take this mode of transport for granted. She smiled as the city finally came into view. Before long they had reached the outskirts and were making excellent time. Lucy carefully directed the chocobo to a corral where it could stay while the two of them poked around in Luca. It was a big place, but Reese had given them the first place they needed to start looking.

The red mage swung out of her saddle and gracefully dismounted, petting the bird again, glad that she'd had a chance to get out. She waited for Garren and Eddie before she went anywhere else, though. It was probably best to stay together until they had a better idea of what was happening.
 
"So!" Garren said cheerfully, hopping off his chocobo as Eddie-ever the quiet one- followed suit. For the most part, he was simply here to observe and take part if needed. They had the right mindset, he was just curious to see if it followed through. Luca was a bustling town as always, filled with many streets crammed with houses and shops...and a more important note was the display of Blizball season starting up soon, there was all kinds of memorabilia for the Luca Goers and other teams scattered across mainstreet.

"Just remember you have a dressphere now, you two." he reminded casually with a soft stretch. "And certain people will be very interested in them."

"What, like the LeBlanc Syndicate?" Garen snorted. "Please, those goons are nothing!"

"Considering you've never actually used your spheres before in real combat, let's not be so quick to assume that." Eddie said dryly.
 
"Even if that were true, you can't underestimate your enemy. They can cause real problems for us if we're not careful. They have numbers over on us, at the very least." She frowned a little and started to walk toward third street, wondering if Reese's family even knew that they had the dress sphere. Maybe they'd taken it by mistake. The only other option was that Reese had knowingly passed off the sphere and not realized that he would be ejected from the program if he fessed up. It didn't really make sense for that to be the reason, though. In any case, it was really the only lead they had.

"Well, what would you suggest we do about drawing attention?" she asked the two men. If they kept using the spheres it would probably be more difficult to take them away, but they'd be obvious. If they didn't use the spheres, they had the opposite problem. Her partner was probably the one she should be looking for ideas from, but Garen seemed to be riding by the seat of his pants. Eddie was there and experienced. It seemed foolish to not utilize it now.
 
Unfortunately, that train of thought for Lucy seemed to crash and explode against the wall of indifference as Eddie gave a casual shrug. Eddie Lightning...more like Eddie Lazy. How in the world did this guy teach much of anything?

"What you think is best, Lucy. I am simply here to guide when you need it for now, this is your job to complete on your own." he said easily, smiling. "Besides, I have some business to attend to!" he said, clearing his throat awkwardly.

"Hey, wait a second!" Garen said in annoyance. "Are you kidding!? What the hell are we supposed to do!?"
 
Well, she should have known, really. Simply asking would have been much to easy. That he seemed to be bowing out, however was something she hadn't seen coming. "Uh...well, alright then. I think I'll keep using mine for now. There are a lot of people wandering around in costume to promote blitz ball right now. Maybe I'll blend in. We should go to the shop for now and see if we can find out what happened."

Garen's outrage wasn't misplaced. She might have complained if Garen wasn't already doing it and meeting with cool indifference. Best to just let it go.
 
Garen huffed in annoyance, hands on his hips. "Can you believe that guy!? What the hell kind of hero just waltzes out like that!? All that teaches us is that he's a unreliable crackpot!" he groused.

"Man, who would accept such lazy guy to be an instructor!?" Really! They were flying blind? What was the point of all this training then? They had to wait for that?
 
"Well, there is a style of teaching in which the instructor lets us fail until we succeed. It's arguably as or more effective than holding your hand through the training process. Still, some guidance would have been nice." She sighed, obviously put out. Garen had many fine points in that wall of complaint, but he was mostly just wasting his energy. She took a turn and guided them further along toward their destination, winding her way through the crowds with her partner.

"There's no point in complaining about it now--it won't change the situation."
 
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