† Not So Long Ago †

[Reji]

Reji looked confused. "I have heard of it, but I've never played it before. Wasn't allowed." She tried to remember what the kids would do in the game, but couldn't. Her uncle had always kept her indoors doing chores and stuff. "What's it like?" she asked.

[Michael]

"Heh. It's great." Michael replied, looking off into the sky as his mind wandered to the wonderful sport. "Sure, it can hurt to play sometimes. And sure, it's hard to learn to hold your breath for so long. But it is a sport capable of providing an escape from the stresses of life. Not to mention that it's the only source of entertainment in Spira, aside from Sphere Break." Michael's eyes shifted back to the world ahead of him. He was back on the planet now. "I don't play professionally myself. But it's always fun to watch. We should catch a game sometime."

[Reji]

Reji nodded. "Cool, maybe." Sports were not her best ability. Not that she was a sissy, just that she rarely played them and almost always ended up with an injury. "Um, so what do you like to do?"

[Michael]

"Hm. Well, as I've stated, I like to watch professional blitzball teams and play casual games with people when I can." Michael replied. "I've also made something of a hobby out of training. Not especially fun I know, but no one will pay you to fight for them if you aren't good. Or in my case, if you aren't better than most." After he finished, Michael began to chuckle. His words had sounded pretty dull. To him at least. "Kinda boring, huh? I bet you have more fun than I do. What do you do for fun?"

[Reji]

Reji smiled. "Well, I'm not sure you'd call my way of entertainment fun, but I'll tell you anyway." She tried to think of what she'd done last. "I like swimming, and climbing trees, like a regular eight-year-old. But I also practice with my sword, and stuff." Reji usually didn't have much to do for fun with her exploration. Nothing exciting ever happened.

[Michael]

"Heh. Well, it sounds like fun in small doses." said Michael. "Looks like we can both get bored pretty easily, eh? Maybe we should find something fun to do while we're in Luca? A little break from the ordinary routine. I'll probably end up just going back to Youth League headquarters and training some more otherwise."

[Reji]

"Ok," Reji said. The word 'fun' made her a little happier. "Do they have those large parks? You can find interesting things to do in those." Reji always liked the big parks. People watching was fun, but something unexpected always happened for some reason.

[Michael]

"Heh. It's Luca. I'm sure they'll have something fun." said Michael. At that moment, a thought popped into his head. He decided to be daring and ask the girl a question on an issue that could be considered somewhat sensitive. "So, do you support the Youth League or New Yevon?" he asked. "Or are you a neutral party?"

[Reji]

"Well, I don't really belong anywhere," Reji said softly. "But my family supports the Youth League." This was an awkward answer since most of her family was either dead, lived too far away to be known, or poor.

[Michael]

"Mm. That's interesting." Michael said, raising his hand to his chin and rubbing it. "Why do you think that is? And more importantly, why is it that you don't support the Youth League as well?" The conversation was going well. But the girls' words of 'I don't belong anywhere' told Michael that the girl must be similar to himself. There were differences, but they both seemed to think they were inferior in some way. And both were reacting by proving otherwise.

[Reji]

Reji shrugged. "I don't really know. When the rest of my family found out I was staying with my uncle, they decided I'd be just like him when I grew up - lazy, selfish, cruel, drunk, ugly. So they cast me out. To them I'm not a part of the family anymore." She let out a breath, a little overwhelmed to say so much. "And so...I don't know what I'm supposed to do. But...it's nice to have someone to finally tell all that to."

[Michael]

"Hm. Well, I'm glad that I could at least be of some help to you." Michael said, now looking straight ahead at the road in front of him. "As for me, I don't follow any particular side either. Whichever group pays me the most gets me, even if it's not the Youth League or New Yevon. Right now, I'm with the Youth League. Fun bunch of guys, if not a little over-eager." A smirk spread across Michael's face at these words.

[Reji]

Reji nodded slowly, but didn't say anything for a while. By now, her tounge-tied disease had kicked in. She'd run out of things to say for the time being. It was awful having that distant fear that you'd talked too much. With a slight sigh, Reji watched her feet walk, trying desperately to find something interesting to say. Joke? No, you're too corny....

[Michael]

Michael smirked. He raised his arm and extended his index finger forward, pointing at the hover that was now in sight. "Ah. There it is." he said. "Took long enough to get here, eh? Good thing machina's allowed these days, or it would have taken forever for us to get to Luca." With the hover in sight, Michael and Reji were just one ride away from reaching Luca. Michael was still debating on what he wanted to eat, as it didn't seem like Reji was going to have a preference.

((Make another post, and then we can move on to Luca))

[Reji]

((Affirmative.))

Reji glanced up to where he was pointing. "A hover? Cool." She was rather excited about going to Luca, as she was with all new places.

((Sorry, short. My dog just got attacked.))